EU hits Microsoft with antitrust charge for bundling Teams with Office, risking hefty fine

Microsoft faces a hefty antitrust fine after the European Commission on Tuesday accused it of illegally linking its chat and video app Teams with its Office product, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals such as Slack.

Two decades after Microsoft’s last EU fine, the EU competition watchdog’s latest action was triggered by a 2020 complaint from rival workspace messaging app Slack, owned by Salesforce.

Reuters first reported in April that the EU was preparing the charges.

The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition watchdog, said Teams had been given a distribution advantage while limitations preventing interaction between Teams’ competitors and Microsoft’s offerings further hindered rivals.

“Preserving competition for remote communication and collaboration tools is essential as it also fosters innovation on these markets,” EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

The US tech giant had to pay 2.2 billion euros (US$2.4 billion) in EU antitrust fines two decades ago for tying, or bundling, two or more products together and other offences. It risks a fine of as much as 10 per cent of its global annual turnover if it is found guilty of latest alleged antitrust breaches.

The Commission said action Microsoft had taken did not sufficiently address its concerns and that more changes were necessary to restore competition.