Microsoft has revealed its plan to separate its chat and video application, Teams, from its Office product, and facilitate compatibility with competing software. However, competitors are suggesting that more steps may be required to avert a potential antitrust penalty from the European Union, Reuters reports.
These proposed changes come shortly after the European Commission initiated an investigation into Microsoft's practice of bundling Office and Teams together, prompted by a complaint by Slack, a rival workspace messaging app owned by Salesforce, in 2020. The measures Microsoft announced are akin to preliminary concessions that had previously failed to address regulatory concerns. The European Commission acknowledged Microsoft's announcement without further commentary.
Sources familiar with the matter disclosed that unless Microsoft strengthens its proposal, formal charges from the Commission could be forthcoming in the autumn.
Teams was integrated into Office 365 at no cost in 2017, eventually replacing Skype for Business. It gained popularity during the pandemic, especially due to its video conferencing capabilities. Microsoft's Vice President for European Government Affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde, mentioned in a blog post that these changes aim to tackle two EU concerns: enabling customers to opt for a business suite excluding Teams at a lower cost and improving interoperability between competing communication and collaboration solutions and Microsoft's 365 and Office 365 suites. These modifications will be effective from October 1 and apply to the EU and Switzerland.
For Microsoft's main enterprise customers, constituting a substantial portion of its commercial activities in Europe, the option to switch to a version of Office without Teams will be available at a €2 per month reduced price compared to the version with Teams. New enterprise customers can purchase Teams separately for €5 per month.
Additional support resources will be introduced to assist customers and independent software vendors who wish to extract data from Teams for use in other products. Microsoft also plans to create a new method for integrating Office web applications into competing apps and services, akin to its approach with Teams.
Salesforce, the owner of Slack, stated it had no further comments on the matter.
However, rivals assert that Microsoft's current proposal is unlikely to appease the EU antitrust regulators. Critics view it as a superficial move, suggesting that it lacks meaningful incremental changes that would satisfy the Commission.
This situation holds significant consequences for the U.S. technology giant. In the past decade, Microsoft has incurred €2.2bn ($2.4bn) in EU antitrust fines for bundling or tying multiple products together. Nonetheless, the company has since adopted a more conciliatory approach toward regulators.
Follow Daryo's official Instagram and Twitter pages to keep current on world news.
Comments (0)