The Microsoft Teams app on a laptop arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft offered to unbundle its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software suites from its Teams workplace communication app to address competition concerns from European regulators.
The European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, said Friday that Microsoft made commitments to address concerns over the tying of Teams to its widely-used productivity tools, such as Word and Outlook.
Under a series of proposals, Microsoft has committed to make versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 available without Teams at a reduced price, as well as allow customers to switch to the tools without Teams, including under existing contracts.
Microsoft also committed to offer Teams’ competitors increased interoperability with other Microsoft products and let customers move their data out of Teams to competing products.
“The proposed commitments are the result of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission over several months,” Nanna-Louise Linde, vice president of European government affairs at Microsoft, said in a statement.
“We believe that they represent a clear and complete resolution to the concerns raised by our competitors and will provide European customers with more choices.”
The EU has been scrutinizing Microsoft’s tying of Teams with its popular Office productivity suite following a legal claim made by workplace messaging app Slack in 2020 that the bundle represented an abuse of market power.
Slack was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billion in 2021.
Sabastian Niles, Salesforce’s president and chief legal officer, said the European Commission’s announcement Friday “further affirms that Microsoft’s anticompetitive practices with Teams have harmed competition and require a binding, enforceable, and effective remedy.”
“We will carefully scrutinize Microsoft’s proposed commitments,” he added.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
