EU Files Formal Complaint Against Microsoft Over Teams Video App
The efforts made by Microsoft Corp. to prevent further investigation by the European Union into its Teams video-conferencing app were unsuccessful, as the bloc’s antitrust enforcers are now preparing to file a formal complaint against the company’s behavior.
Microsoft’s recent proposal to separate Teams from the broader business software suite and sell it separately to customers at an annual discount was not enough to satisfy regulators’ concerns, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The European Commission is preparing a statement of objections to send to the company, which could come in the next few months, the people said.
In late August, Microsoft tried to dispel concerns raised by the EU’s competition authority as part of a new investigation into how it bundles Teams with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 packages. The EU investigation followed a complaint by Salesforce Inc.’s messaging platform Slack about three years ago.
Microsoft and the Commission declined to comment on the EU’s next steps.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft faces at least two more complaints to EU regulators. They include one member of a European cloud group that includes Amazon.com Inc’s AWS, which accuses Microsoft of using unfair licensing practices to lure EU customers to its cloud infrastructure.
Another, filed in 2021 by German cloud platform NextCloud GmbH, complains about Microsoft’s integration of its OneDrive cloud system with Windows.
Microsoft is also facing an investigation by the EU’s digital antitrust regulators, who are looking into whether its Bing, Edge and Advertising services should fall under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which includes a series of do and don’ts for key technologies. companies.
