On July 27th, 2023, the European Union (EU) launched an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of its video and chat app Teams with other Office products. The probe was initiated due to concerns that Microsoft may be driving out competition by unfairly tying its Teams video conferencing app with its popular business software suite. This action could potentially breach EU competition rules by giving Teams an unfair advantage over rivals and limiting operability with rival software platforms.
Microsoft Teams is a comprehensive messaging app designed for real-time collaboration and communication within organizations. It offers features such as meetings, file and app sharing, and even the occasional emoji. However, it has been compared to Zoom, primarily a video conferencing tool, while Teams is an all-in-one tool combining video conferencing with team chat and other productivity features.
The EU’s antitrust policy aims to maintain competition within the European Single Market by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. This ensures that they do not create cartels and monopolies that would damage societal interests. In this context, the EU’s probe into Microsoft’s practices is significant.
The investigation comes three years after Salesforce Inc.’s messaging platform Slack lodged a complaint with the EU’s antitrust watchdog. Salesforce, a leading cloud-based customer management software company, acquired Slack in a $27.7 billion deal in 2021. The complaint from Slack, now a part of Salesforce, sparked the current clash between Microsoft and Salesforce.
Microsoft has faced antitrust regulators in the US and Europe over complaints of unfairly tying products and blocking rivals’ access to desktop Windows software. Despite these challenges, Microsoft has expressed respect for the European Commission’s work on this case and pledged to cooperate with the Commission.
In addition to the Teams issue, Microsoft also faces scrutiny over its record $69 billion deal for games developer Activision-Blizzard, which the EU cleared earlier this year. Furthermore, the Redmond, Washington-based company faces at least two more complaints with EU regulators, including one accusing Microsoft of using unfair licensing practices to attract EU customers to its cloud infrastructure.
As the EU continues its antitrust probe, the tech industry will be closely watching the outcome, which could have far-reaching implications for competition and market dominance in the digital space.
Citations :
- https://www.computerworld.com/article/3701394/microsoft-set-to-face-eu-antitrust-probe-over-teams-bundle-report.html
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-microsoft-teams-3de4d369-0167-8def-b93b-0eb5286d7a29
- https://www.saasguru.co/is-salesforce-coding-difficult/
- https://www.reuters.com/article/eu-meta-platforms-antitrust-idCAKBN2YS1MZ
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_competition_law
- https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/27/eu-opens-antitrust-probe-into-microsoft-bundling-of-teams-app.html
- https://www.salesforce.com/in/products/what-is-salesforce/
- https://zapier.com/blog/zoom-vs-teams/#:~:text=Here’s%20the%20main%20difference%3A,chat%20and%20other%20productivity%20features.
- https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/jul/27/microsoft-teams-faces-eu-antitrust-probe-in-salesf/
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/what-is-microsoft-teams-3de4d369-0167-8def-b93b-0eb5286d7a29#:~:text=Microsoft%20Teams%20is%20the%20ultimate,open%2C%20all%20accessible%20to%20everyone.
- https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/definition/Salesforcecom
- https://news.bloomberglaw.com/antitrust/microsoft-teams-faces-eu-antitrust-probe-in-salesforce-clash
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-27/microsoft-teams-faces-eu-antitrust-probe-in-salesforce-clash