Advertising
Supported by
The tech giant has been accused of stifling the festival by combining its video conferencing app with equipment such as Word and Excel.
By Adán Satariano
Report from London
European Union regulators on Tuesday accused Microsoft of violating antitrust regulations by combining its Teams video conferencing and collaboration software with a suite of other productivity tools, giving it unfair credit over its competitors.
Regulators said Microsoft’s combination of Teams with other well-established software teams in Office 365 and Microsoft 365, which come with systems like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, amounted to an illegal abuse of market dominance that rival corporations like Zoom and Slack may simply not match. Regulators said corporations didn’t necessarily have the option to opt for Teams yet if they were looking for other software created through Microsoft.
The allegations are just the latest in a series of announcements made across the European Union in recent months in its efforts to crack down on the world’s largest tech platforms. On Monday, regulators accused Apple of violating festival regulations because of its App Store policies. . Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok, and X are also looking into similar business practices and services.
Microsoft’s case has its roots in the Covid-19 pandemic, when video conferencing and collaboration teams like Zoom, Slack, and Teams have become essential for remote work. In 2020, Slack, now owned by Salesforce, complained to regulators that Microsoft’s combination of Teams with other productivity software is anti-competitive, triggering the first European investigation.
EU regulators said Microsoft was enjoying an unfair “distribution advantage” by not giving consumers the choice to buy Teams or not when buying other software. Competing video conferencing equipment makers also face difficulties working with other Microsoft software, regulators said. saying.
“This habit would have possibly prevented Teams competition from competing and innovating to the detriment of customers,” the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body leading the investigation, said in a statement.
The fees set Tuesday are a step in a long process. Microsoft can now respond to the complaint, but if the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the company could be fined up to 10% of its annual global revenue.
The case has parallels to antitrust fees formulated decades ago by the U. S. Department of Justice opposing Microsoft for integrating Internet Explorer into its Windows operating system, a case that was eventually settled.
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it had taken steps to resolve the dispute. Last year, Microsoft agreed to sell Teams separately from Office products.
“Having unbundled Teams and taken the first steps toward interoperability, we appreciate the increased clarity provided and will work to find answers to address the commission’s remaining concerns,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, said in a statement.
The European Commission said the adjustments made through Microsoft were “insufficient” and called for additional adjustments to “restore competition,” without specifying what they would be.
Adam Satariano is the Times’ generation correspondent in London. Read more about Adam Satariano
Advertising