Back in 2020, Salesforce owned Slack filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft for bundling Teams collaboration software with Office productivity suite. Early this year, the EC confirmed that assessment of Slack’s complaint against Microsoft is ongoing.
Early this year, there were reports that Microsoft will stop bundling Teams with Office in the EU region to avoid antitrust investigation. With this change, enterprises can install Office suite with or without Teams based on their preference. Also, Microsoft offered to license Office suite without Teams included.
Early this month, the Reuters reported that Microsoft is likely to face an antitrust investigation in the coming months since remedy discussions with the EC have hit a roadblock.
Today, the Financial Times reported that Microsoft will next week face its first formal EU antitrust investigation for bundling Teams with Office. According to the FT’s sources, Microsoft’s concessions to appease competition concerns proved insufficient and the company could face formal charges as early as the autumn.
We continue to engage cooperatively with the commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well – Microsoft
Right now, Slack has about 20 million monthly active users while Teams has about 270 million monthly active users. It will be interesting to see how this EU investigation will affect Teams’ market position in the communication and collaboration market.
