EU antitrust regulators have sent a questionnaire to Microsoft’s competitors to find out whether shedding Teams from its Office bundle will level the playing field sufficiently in their eyes.
Back in 2020, Slack accused Microsoft of anticompetitive behaviour. With pressure also coming from the European Union (EU), the technology giant agreed to unbundle Teams from Office 365 in the European Economic Area (EEA), which excludes the United Kingdom following Brexit.
Now, with a questionnaire observed by Reuters, the regulators may be in the process of building a case with a view to breaking up the current Microsoft Office offering further.
In a Microsoft blog post published at the end of August 2023, Nanna-Louise Linde, Vice President, Microsoft European Government Affairs anticipated that the unbundling of Teams would only be the beginning: “We recognize our responsibility as a major technology provider to support a healthy competitive environment.
“We appreciate the clarity that has emerged on several of the concerns from extensive and constructive discussions with the European Commission.
“With the benefit of this clarity, we believe it is important that we start to take meaningful steps to address those concerns.
“We do this not with the sense that this will necessarily resolve all concerns, whether from the Commission or our competitors, but we believe this is a constructive step that can start to lead to immediate and meaningful changes in the market.”
Rivals were reportedly asked by EU regulators to give feedback from customers to find out how their products and services could be used alongside Office, what the costs would be with and without Teams, and eligibility criteria.
Microsoft has pointed back to the blog post quoted above by way of comment, demonstrating its commitment to finding a solution to the EU Commission’s concerns.
In the same post, Microsoft revealed that a Teams-free version of Office would cost two euros less per month, with Teams being able to be purchased separately for five euros per month.
It promised to enhance its existing interoperability resources with both Microsoft 365 and Office 365. As a result, Microsoft believes Salesforce, Zoom, and others will be able to create an integrated experience with Outlook, Exchange, and Teams.
