Microsoft to Unbundle Teams from Office to Evade EU Antitrust Fines

The Washington-based tech firm Microsoft is trying to avoid European Union antitrust fines on its Teams chat and video-conferencing application.

EU investigators are on a scrutiny check to determine if Microsoft has violated competition rules by combining Microsoft Teams with its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites.

Microsoft is Trying to Escape EU Scrutiny

On August 31, 2023, the vice president at the company for European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde, announced some proactive changes in Microsoft via the firm's blog.

According to him, the American-based tech giant is moving to separate Teams from the firm's Office 365 and 365 suites for its customers in Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA) starting on October 1.

This development emerged following the European Commission's formal investigation in July to ascertain its involvement in anti-competitive practices.

Note that three years ago, a messaging platform that belongs to Salesforce Inc. Slack sued the company for antitrust practices. Salesforce Inc. is a company that provides cloud-based software services, with headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Slack accused Microsoft of violating anticompetitive rules by bundling Teams of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites and blocking some customers from exiting the software programs.

According to Linde, the tech firm believes the new changes will align with the European merchants and their competitors.

Microsoft's Plans for Its Bundled Package

The company will split Teams from its Office 365 and 365 suites by selling the software packages without Teams at an affordable price of 24 per year or 2 less per month.

Linde further clarified this move is for its core commercial customers across Switzerland and the EEA. However, she noted that Microsoft Teams will still be made available for its new business customers as a standalone product at the cost of 60 per year or 5 per month.

According to information from the company's blog, enterprises that have already purchased the combined product can migrate to the productivity suite without Teams or keep the current combined suite package.

But for frontline workers and small enterprises, the company will maintain the sales of suites with Teams but will also offer a suite package without Teams in case of choice-making. It promised to offer these products at affordable prices following the recent changes.

Microsoft Will Advance the Interoperability of Pre-Installed Resources with Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Suite

The Washington-based tech firm will offer improved interoperability with Office 365 and 365 services. This enables other tech companies like Salesforce and Zoom to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft's products like Teams, Outlook, and Exchange.

To achieve this goal, the firm is set to develop novel support materials to get a better organization. This will direct its app creators to the pre-existing and openly available APIs and extensibility in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 applications and services that integrate with Microsoft Teams.

When this is achieved, the novel support materials will enable the firm to address questions received from independent software vendors (ISVs) and its customers.

The new approach will also help answer questions on how data can be extracted from Microsoft Teams and reused.

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