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The European Commission has taken the first step towards settling its antitrust probe against Microsoft, after the US tech giant offered new concessions on its Teams and Office products to avoid a hefty fine.
The Microsoft Teams probe, which began after a 2020 complaint from Slack, now part of Salesforce, accuses the software giant of abusing its market dominance by tying its video conferencing tool Teams to its widely used Office 365.
Since the initial complaint, Microsoft has unbundled Teams from Office 365 in the EU but critics said the changes were too narrow. It has now promised additional concessions, such as continuing the Teams and Office separation for seven years.
The regulator on Friday said it would launch a so-called market test to determine whether Microsoft’s new offer was enough to satisfy its probe by gathering feedback from rivals and customers in the coming months before making a final decision. Market tests are typically seen as a precursor to a settlement.
The move comes amid growing tensions between the EU and US President Donald Trump over the tough regulation of US Big Tech companies. Trump has previously compared the EU’s fines to “overseas extortion” and called them a “form of taxation”.
Microsoft said it was “hopeful” its new offer would lead to the end of the Teams investigation without any fines in the following months. Those penalties could have been up to 10 per cent of the company’s global annual turnover.
As part of the concessions, the software giant will improve its interoperability with other products, such as allowing a Zoom button in the menu bar of Microsoft Outlook.
“The proposed commitments are the result of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission over several months,” said Microsoft. “We believe that they represent a clear and complete resolution to the concerns raised by our competitors and will provide European customers with more choices.”
Salesforce said it would carefully scrutinise Microsoft’s proposed commitments. “The European Commission’s announcement of a market test further affirms that Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices with Teams have harmed competition and require a binding, enforceable and effective remedy,” said Sabastian Niles, president and chief legal officer of Salesforce.
In Brussels, Microsoft could face another investigation following a complaint from Google, which alleges its Big Tech rival engages in unfair cloud computing practices. Meanwhile, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is investigating the software giant for its strong position in the UK cloud computing market.
