Microsoft avoids EU fine after Slack complained about Teams bundling

“The commitments address the Commission’s concerns related to the tying of Microsoft Teams to the company’s popular productivity applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, included in its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for business customers,” says the European Commission.

Microsoft has committed to do the following:

Most of the commitments from Microsoft will be enforced by EU lawmakers for seven years, with the interoperability and data portability ones in force for 10 years. Microsoft originally unbundled Teams from Office in Europe in 2023 in an attempt to address regulator concerns, and then spun off Teams from Office 365 as its own separate app globally last year.

“Organizations big and small across Europe and around the world rely heavily on videoconferencing, chat and collaboration tools, especially since the coronavirus pandemic,” says Teresa Ribera, executive vice president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition at the European Commission. “Today’s decision therefore opens up competition in this crucial market, and ensures that businesses can freely choose the communication and collaboration product that best suits their needs.”

EU lawmakers first opened a Microsoft antitrust investigation into Teams bundling in 2023, after Slack filed its anti-competitive complaint amid intense competition with Microsoft that developed after the covid-19 pandemic began. Slack’s original complaint alleged that Microsoft had “illegally tied” its Microsoft Teams product to Office and is “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.”