Microsoft Faces Anti-Competition Allegations Over Unfair Promotion of Teams

Microsoft has been accused of violating competition rules by the European Commission. The company was found to have unfairly promoted its own chat and videoconferencing tools over competitors’ products. This was done by including the videoconferencing application Teams with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 office suites, without any additional cost to customers.

Customers had no choice in whether they wanted access to Teams when they subscribed to these applications. Additionally, there were concerns about limitations on interoperability between Microsoft’s services and competitors of Teams.

The investigation into this matter began in July 2023 after complaints from companies like Slack (now owned by Salesforce) and Alfaview. In response, Microsoft made some changes to how Teams was distributed, but the Commission believes that these changes are not sufficient to address all competition concerns.

If found guilty, Microsoft could face hefty fines that could amount to up to 10 percent of their global turnover. The company will have the opportunity to respond to the allegations, but there is currently no deadline set for the completion of the investigation.