Microsoft could stop offering Office teams to avoid EU competition law
To avoid a formal antitrust investigation by European Union (EU) regulators, Microsoft has announced that it will no longer require users of its popular Office software to also install the Teams video conferencing and messaging app on their devices.
According to the Financial Times, Microsoft has made the concession to avoid a formal investigation following a 2020 complaint by rival Slack (a business chat app) that bundling Microsoft into one service was anti-competitive.
Slack has asked EU officials to force Microsoft to sell Teams independently of its Office suite.
Slack’s complaint came at a time when the trend towards working from home was accelerating.
Apps like Teams and Slack exploded in popularity during the Covid pandemic, creating a billion-dollar opportunity as users and businesses increasingly adopt tools that enable remote work, according to the report.
“We are aware of our responsibilities in the EU as a large technology company. We continue to cooperate with the commission in its investigation and are open to practical solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well,” Microsoft said.
The report also noted that in 2008, the commission accused Microsoft of using its dominant position to force users to download Internet Explorer by bundling it with Windows.
Although the company settled with the commission and offered users a choice of browsers, the EU fined the company 561 million in 2013 for breaching its promise.
Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has threatened to sue Microsoft over claims the company “illegally trained using Twitter data.”
Musk’s reaction came after Microsoft dropped Twitter from its advertising platform for refusing to pay Twitter’s API fees.
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