Microsoft has been accused by Brussels of anti-competitive behaviour by bundling its Teams app with its Office suite, in the first such antitrust charges brought against the tech group in more than a decade.
On Tuesday, the European Commission handed the world’s most valuable public company a charge sheet outlining concerns that Microsoft had given the video conferencing app Teams an undue advantage, harming rivals such as Slack and Zoom.
The charges are the biggest that Brussels has filed against Microsoft, apart from merger control, since the group’s showdown with the US and EU over Windows, which started more than 20 years ago.
That landmark case also centred on Microsoft’s bundling of its various software products. The latest case follows a bruising battle with regulators over Microsoft’s $75bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard last year and comes as the company faces scrutiny over its alliances with artificial intelligence start-ups including OpenAI.
‘We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors by tying it to its popular productivity suites for business’, said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.
If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to reply to our concerns.
In April, Microsoft issued concessions aimed at trying to avert regulatory action, including widening plans to unbundle Teams from other software such as Office beyond Europe. However, officials did not think the move went far enough to enable competition in the market.
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