The European Commission is investigating Microsoft for possible anticompetitive behavior.
The commission has opened a formal investigation into Microsoft for bundling Teams with Office 365 and Microsoft 365. In doing so, Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by "abusing and defending its market position," and "restricting competition" within the European Economic Area.
This investigation is the result of a complaint filed by Slack Technologies in July 2020, which alleged Microsoft "illegally tied Teams to its dominant productivity suites." Therefore, the focus of the investigation is on Microsoft deciding to include Teams with its cloud-based productivity suites (Office 365 and Microsoft 365) for business customers.
After reviewing the complaint, the Commission became concerned that "Microsoft may grant Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice on whether or not to include access to that product when they subscribe to their productivity suites and may have limited the interoperability between its productivity suites and competing offerings."
If the investigation proves this to be the case, Microsoft may be breaching EU competition rules and abusing its dominant position under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Microsoft has been made aware of the investigation by the Commission, and there is no deadline attached for it concluding.
In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said: "We respect the European Commission’s work on this case and take our own responsibilities very seriously. We will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns."
Microsoft continues to add new features to both its productivity suites and Teams. Microsoft 365's Office apps just got a new default theme, while Teams got Discord-like communities and the option for AI to apply virtual makeup to meeting attendees. Windows users can also enjoy a faster Teams experience that uses less memory thanks to a recent redesign.