Microsoft has been accused by the European Commission of violating competition rules in the EU. The allegations stem from the company’s practice of including its videoconferencing application Teams in its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 office suites.
The Commission sent a Statement of Objections to Microsoft, claiming that the company used its dominant position in the software market to unfairly promote its own chat and videoconferencing tools over competitors. This included integrating Teams with popular applications like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Outlook at no extra cost, giving customers no choice in whether they wanted access to Teams when they subscribed to these applications.
Furthermore, there were apparent restrictions on interoperability between Microsoft’s services and the products of Teams’ competitors, raising concerns about anti-competitive behavior. The investigation into Microsoft’s actions began in July 2023 after complaints from Slack and Alfaview. Although Microsoft has made some adjustments to the distribution of Teams in response to the investigation, the Commission believes that these changes are not enough to address all competition concerns.
This latest development could result in significant fines for Microsoft, potentially amounting to 10 percent of its global turnover. The company will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations but there is currently no deadline for completing the investigation.