Microsoft Gets Charged by the EU for Violating Antitrust Regulations

• The EU has sent a Statement of Objections to Microsoft, accusing it of violating antitrust regulations by bundling Microsoft Teams and other productivity tools.
• If found guilty, Microsoft will have to pay a fine of up to 10% of its total global revenue.
• Microsoft in response said that it has already unbundled Teams and will continue to work with the EU to address its remaining concerns.

On Tuesday (June 25), Microsoft was charged with violating antitrust regulations by the EU over its abusive" bundling of Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Office products.

These accusations are yet to be proven, but in case they are, Microsoft will have to pay a fine of up to 10% of its global annual revenue.What Exactly Is the Issue?

By Microsoft bundling Teams and Office 365 and Microsoft 365, individual providers of communication and collaboration tools are having a harder time competing in the market.

To make matters worse, Microsoft apparently didn't give its users a choice of whether they wanted to access Teams when they subscribed to Microsoft Office.

On top of that, Microsoft also added some interoperability limitations between Teams' competitors and Microsoft's offerings so that users cannot seamlessly connect their Office account with third-party tools.

These actions violate Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which explicitly warns companies against abusing their dominant position in the market. A Statement of Objections has already been sent to Microsoft, detailing its offense.

Read more: FTC and DOJ launch antitrust investigation against Microsoft

What Does Microsoft Have to Say in Response?

The investigation first started in July 2023, triggered by a complaint lodged by Slack, which is a competitor of Microsoft. Since then, Microsoft has taken a number of steps to address the EU's concerns.

For example, in April this year, Microsoft unbundled Teams and Office, first in the EU and then globally. Following this, it also took some steps to boost interoperability with third-party tools.

After it was sent the Statement of Objections by the EU Commission, Microsoft thanked the agency for providing more clarity on the issue and assured that it would take steps to pacify all their concerns.

However, these steps might not be enough to undo the damage. In a statement on Tuesday, the agency said that these steps were insufficient to address its concerns and that more changes to Microsoft's conduct are necessary to restore competition."

Slack has also responded to Microsoft being sent the Statement of Objection. A spokesperson from the company said that this step by the EU Commission is a win for customers everywhere and that it also proves that Slack's concerns about Microsoft's product bundling affecting competition were indeed correct.

Slack also appreciated the EU Commission for conducting a thorough investigation and urged it to quickly take effective and binding steps that would restore a fair, competition-friendly market in the EU.

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