E.U. opens antitrust probe into Microsoft’s bundling of teams

Share post:

The European Commission is opening a formal antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of its Teams software with its Office productivity suite.

The investigation comes after a complaint by Slack, a rival communication app, which alleges that Microsoft is using its dominance in the office productivity market to unfairly promote Teams.

Slack argues that Microsoft is “illegally tying” Teams to Office, making it difficult for businesses to choose other communication apps. Slack also says that Microsoft is “force installing” Teams on millions of devices and making it difficult for businesses to remove it.

The European Commission will now investigate whether Microsoft’s bundling of Teams is in breach of EU competition law. If the Commission finds that Microsoft is breaking the law, it could impose fines of up to 10% of Microsoft’s global turnover.

Microsoft has responded to the EU’s complaint. “We respect the European Commission’s work on this case and take our own responsibilities very seriously,” says Microsoft spokesperson Robin Koch. “We will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns.”

The sources for this piece include an article in TheVerge.

Featured Tech Jobs

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Related articles

FTC sues Amazon for monopoly abuse

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant is a...

Google sued after man drives off collapsed bridge using Maps

A North Carolina man's family has filed a lawsuit against Google, alleging that the company was negligent in...

Authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

A group of authors has filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement. The authors, including Pulitzer...

SpaceX sues U.S. government over hiring discrimination case

SpaceX has sued the U.S. government, challenging the Department of Justice's (DOJ) authority to hear an administrative case...

Become a member

New, Relevant Tech Stories. Our article selection is done by industry professionals. Our writers summarize them to give you the key takeaways