In 2020, Slack—owned by Salesforce—filed a complaint against Microsoft before the European Commission. According to the messaging service, the software giant was abusing its dominant position by unduly linking Teams to Office. Having the communications application included in the office suite would distort competition: why use Slack when Teams comes pre-installed alongside Words, Excel, or PowerPoint?
Teams will no longer be a burden for Microsoft in Europe
The European regulator took up the case, to which was added a complaint from Alfaview, a German competitor, in 2023. Microsoft responded that same year, however, by decoupling Office from Teams and lowering its subscription prices—very slightly: €2 less for the office suite, while Teams was billed at €5 per month on its own.
In February 2025, the price gap between the two products widened after rivals demanded it, who felt it wasn't enough. In the meantime, Microsoft also decoupled Teams from the office suite worldwide.
Microsoft also made other proposals to address the abuse of its dominant position, including facilitating interoperability with competing services. The European Commission is expected to consult other market players soon before making its final decision. The publisher has already been fined €2.2 billion in recent years for bundling products and other antitrust violations.
But when it comes to this specific Teams case, the company should get off lightly: Reuters reports that Microsoft's efforts to show its credentials have had an impact on Brussels. This is a welcome development, as the Trump administration has taken a dim view of the Commission's heavy penalties against US companies.
Source: Reuters
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