Microsoft and EU to Settle Antitrust Case Involving Teams

Microsoft and the European Union have reportedly reached a settlement in which the tech giant will avoid an antitrust fine by agreeing to sell its Teams videoconferencing app separately from its Office packages.

In addition, the settlement, which is still in draft form, would require Microsoft to charge less for packages that don’t include Teams and to improve interoperability with the software of its rivals, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Sept. 4), citing unnamed sources.

Neither the European Commission nor Microsoft immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to the Bloomberg report, EU regulators decided to accept the settlement offer from Microsoft after receiving positive feedback on it from the company’s customers and rivals.

The decision is expected to be finalized within weeks, the report said.

The reported settlement involves an EU investigation that looked into whether Microsoft illegally bundled Teams with other products, per the report.

The investigation began after a 2019 complaint by Slack, before that company’s 2021 acquisition by Salesforce, according to the report.

When it was reported in July 2023 that the European Commission could formally charge Microsoft and investigate these antitrust claims, a Microsoft spokesperson told PYMNTS that the company was continuing “to engage cooperatively with the commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well.”

It was reported at the time that Microsoft had offered in negotiations with the EU to stop forcing Office customers to have Teams automatically installed on their devices and that talks had broken down over the question of whether the company’s proposed concessions would only apply to the EU or be implemented around the world.

In August 2023, it was reported that Microsoft had responded to the EU’s antitrust concerns by announcing it would start unbundling Teams from its Office and Microsoft 365 suites for customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

Reuters reported in May that the European Commission was leaning toward accepting Microsoft’s revised proposal to address competition concerns over its bundling practices and avoid a potentially significant antitrust fine.

At that time, the European Commission was preparing to launch a market test that would involve soliciting feedback from both Microsoft’s competitors and its enterprise customers before the regulator reached a final verdict.