The European Union (EU) is probing Microsoft’s dominance in the collaboration space, according to Reuters.
The EU’s antitrust regulators have reportedly sent out a questionnaire to Microsoft’s rivals to establish whether Microsoft bundling Teams into office as a free product has given it an unfair advantage.
Reuters said that the probe is a follow-up to the complaint made by Slack, which has since been acquired by Salesforce, last year.
In the questionnaire, the European Commission asks respondents for a list of customers they have lost to Teams and the percentage of revenue they have lost as a result of these switches.
The survey focuses on the years between 2016 and 2021, Reuters added.
Slack first made its argument to the EU in July last year, accusing Microsoft of crushing competition and illegally abusing its position in the software market. It said that Microsoft force installs Teams on user machines and makes it difficult to remove.
The pair got off to a rocky start when Microsoft introduced Teams in 2016, with Slack taking a full-page advert in the New York Times which was met with a mixed reception. Some commentators said it was petty while others said it showed Slack was fearful of Microsoft’s entry into the market with a Slack alternative.
That feeling when you think “we should buy a full page in the Times and publish an open letter,” and then you do. 💫 pic.twitter.com/BQiEawRA6d
— Stewart Butterfield (@stewart) November 2, 2016
But Slack CEO, Stewart Butterfield, recently said that Microsoft has turned its attention away from Slack and is now more interested in “killing Zoom”.
Microsoft has not commented on the Reuters report.
