The European Commission accepted commitments from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to address EU competition concerns related to the company’s video-conferencing app Teams.
The regulator said the commitments address its concerns related to the tying of Microsoft Teams to the company’s productivity applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, included in Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for business customers.
Under the commitments, Microsoft will — make available versions of these suites without Teams and at a reduced price; and allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams.
The U.S. tech giant will also provide interoperability for key functionalities between communication and collaboration tools that compete with Teams and certain Microsoft products; and allow customers to move their data out of Teams to facilitate the use of competing solutions.
“With today’s decision, we make binding for seven years or more Microsoft’s commitments to put an end to its tying practices that may be preventing rivals from effectively competing with Teams,” said Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. “Today’s decision therefore opens up competition in this crucial market, and ensures that businesses can freely choose the communication and collaboration product that best suits their needs.”
The EU antitrust watchdog noted that commitments offered by Microsoft will remain in force for seven years, except for the commitments related to interoperability and data portability which will remain in force for 10 years.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Last week it was reported that Microsoft was nearing a deal with the EU that would allow the tech giant to stave off antitrust fines.
The Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Microsoft in July 2023 after following a complaint by Slack Technologies, now owned by Salesforce (CRM). In addition, after another complaint by alfaview GmbH in June 2024, the Commission opened a second antitrust investigation.
In August 2023, Microsoft said it would unbundle Teams from its Office product and make it easier for rival products to work with its software in an effort to address the European competition concerns. Last year in April, the company announced that it would globally sell the chat and video app Teams separately from the Office product.
The Commission said that on May 16 it launched a market test on the commitments offered by Microsoft, which ran until June 16. Following the market test, both Slack and alfaview GmbH withdrew their complaints.