The EU will continue to sue Microsoft for possible unfair competition from its video conferencing platform Teams. This is despite the tech giant’s proposal not to bundle the application with other software, such as Microsoft 365.
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft’s proposal did not prove enough to avoid a possible unfair competition lawsuit surrounding Teams. The European Commission is preparing a statement listing concerns surrounding Teams’ possible market dominance. This will be sent to Microsoft within a few months.
Alleged market dominance Teams
Microsoft has long feared sanctions from the EC surrounding its Teams application. It is a thorn in EC’s eye that this application is bundled by default with other Microsoft solutions and software. This makes it much harder for other providers of similar applications, such as Slack, Zoom or WebEx, to find audiences for their applications.
EU competition authorities are therefore threatening action. Recently, Microsoft tried to give way by stopping bundling Teams with other products before the EU. To partners, however, the tech giant indicated that this is only a compromise and it can still change the bundle it made for the EU.
Also read: Cheaper Microsoft 365 bundle without Teams is available for the EU
Other charges
When the EC will send the complaint to Microsoft is unknown. In addition to the complaint about Teams, Microsoft is also the subject of an investigation by the EU over non-fair user licensing for its public cloud platform Azure, and it still needs to be determined whether the EU’s Digital Markets Act should cover Edge and its advertising services.
Also read: Will Microsoft continue to impose Edge browser in Europe after all?
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