Microsoft Corp. offered to separate its Teams video conferencing app from a larger business software bundle in an effort to deflect additional European Union antitrust inquiry.
In a blog post published on Thursday, Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice president for European government affairs, announced that starting on October 1 the company will separate Teams from Office 365 and Microsoft 365 in Europe.
Since the EU decided to start an investigation in July, the Redmond, Washington-based company is attempting to avoid formal antitrust charges from the bloc and the possibility of further fines.
Microsoft Corp. offered to separate its Teams video conferencing app from a larger business software bundle in an effort to deflect additional European Union antitrust inquiries.
Microsoft Fends Off EU Antitrust Probe
In a blog post published on Thursday, Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice president for European government affairs, announced that starting on October 1 the company will separate Teams from Office 365 and Microsoft 365 in Europe.
A European antitrust investigation on Microsoft is ongoing since it combined Teams with Microsoft 365.
The complaint argued that Microsoft’s decision to bundle Teams with Office 365 was unfair, and the European Commission.
The executive branch of the European Union, which oversees legislation for its 27 member nations, stated it is looking into the matter.
The European Commission expressed concern that Microsoft might be limiting competition for communication and collaboration products.
The European Economic Area (‘EEA’) as a means of abusing and maintaining its market dominance in productivity software.
According to the Commission, by excluding the option for enterprise clients to include access to Teams. When they subscribe to Microsoft 365, the bundling of Teams may give Microsoft a distribution advantage.
According to Coalition for Fair Software (CFSL) Executive Director Ryan Triplette.
“Our members see the same anticompetitive behavior in the cloud as the software behemoth utilizes its Microsoft 365 suite to push up costs and limit customer choice.”
Microsoft uses its dominant position in one market Microsoft Fends off. An EU Antitrust Probe to distort competition in another, according to its playbook.
In July 2020, Slack, a Salesforce company, complained about Microsoft. The European Commission claimed that the reason.
It is starting the investigation is because it sees remote communication and collaboration technologies as essential components for many European enterprises.
The Commission stated that Microsoft may have restricted compatibility. Between its productivity suites and other products, and that these actions may be considered anticompetitive tying.
Microsoft did not respond to an email asking for comments on the investigation.
Microsoft is using its strong desktop and productivity tools, as well as ActiveDirectory, Azure, OneDrive, and Defender. To push users to adopt Teams and other Microsoft Fends Off EU Antitrust Probe of its cloud-based services as well, according to Triplette.
Offer in March to modify its cloud computing procedures in order to avert. A second antitrust investigation from the European Commission.
European cloud service providers have complained to the Commission. About Microsoft charging consumers more to use Microsoft software in non-Microsoft cloud settings. This cloud license regulation was referred to as restrictive by European cloud companies.
Similar legal action was taken against Microsoft in 2009 for including the Internet Explorer browser in its Windows operating system.
Due to the company’s broken commitment to include a choice of browsers. As part of its operating system, the EU fined Apple more than $600 million (€561 million) in 2013.
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