back to article EU accuses Microsoft of antitrust violations for bundling Teams with O365

Microsoft broke the European Union's antitrust regulations by "tying" collaboration tool Teams to its dominant online Office productivity suite, according to preliminary findings from an investigation begun in July 2023. The EU's antitrust team informed the Redmond-based biz in a Statement of Objections document, and the …

  1. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
    Devil

    Micros~1 will just say "fine", and start charging an extra amount per year for Teams in the EU. You'll be able to unbundle it, of course - if you can find the form buried somewhere on the MS website, have three customer identifiers, and already have a subscription. It'll take effect from your next renewal, naturally.

    1. 0laf Silver badge
      Facepalm

      If a business has been using Teams for a while now then they are very unlikely to take advantage of any unbundling. Processes and standards will already have been written for using whichever tool they are on. So Teams users will stick with Teams and Slack with Slack.

      Nice of the EU to wade in 5yr too late, it's the thought that counts I suppose

      1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

        They should modify the law so that if Microsoft (or whoever loses) they have to pay the costs of companies who want to untangle from Teams (in this case) and move to one of the competitors. That would hurt them more than just a fine.

      2. druck Silver badge

        Yes too late, cost me my job in a competing video collaboration company two years ago.

        They are still around, but attempting go up against the default choice of Teams is now impossible even with a vastly superior video experience, so they have been forced to beg for scraps from Microsoft's table by providing interoperability between Teams and other 3rd party products.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't forget the 'collaboration tool choice' pop-up that will appear when you start Teams. It's almost like this is Microsoft's business plan and the cost of any EU fines are factored in from the start.

      1. 0laf Silver badge
        Facepalm

        And will keep popping up endlessly even after you do give in and buy the product in the hope the MS nagware will feck off.

        Buy Slack get nagged with "have you tried Teams, how about Teams?"

        Buy Teams still get fecking nagged with "have you tried Teams, what about 365, why not use Edge".

        God I hate computing these days.

  2. ITMA Silver badge
    Devil

    Why don't the EU tackle the more invasive CoPilot crap which is being forced onto almost everything.

    Likewise with Adobe's "AI" crap which you can't turn off.

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      They are

      Trouble is that everything involving lawyers takes a ridiculously long time.

      It's almost like they charge by the hour.

      Oh. They do.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They are

        A little pedantic but they don't charge by the hour. They charge by the 6 minutes... You think you're getting an entire hour of their time for that price?

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Perhaps the US could step up and do a bit of regulation from time to time what with them being US companies and all.

      1. Cruachan Bronze badge

        Can only assume the wheels turn even more slowly there, MS have carried the EU ruling over to RotW as well so companies will probably see an EU win as a way to get the ball rolling on anti-trust.

        Plus in general the US is quite happy when companies based there are dominant, rather less so than when foreign companies are.

  3. Tubz Silver badge

    Microsoft says OK EU we give in, shame we already have our user base *snigger*, shame it takes you so long to get off your gravy train seat to investigate, which is the norm for most investigations.

    Why are the EU not investigating the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Meta etc as a complete business and not per complaint?

    If we take Microsoft and the PC as an example, how many products that are integrated are blatant antitrust violations, Media Player, Teams, OneDrive, Edge, Outlook, Xbox, as most users will just use whatever came free and pre-installed, no competition!!

    A computer should come with the OS and very little else, fine have an app store, fine have random choice screens for apps, the less bloat the better.

    1. The Indomitable Gall

      I don't think you're being particularly fair to single the EU out for that -- this is a problem with all public sector regulation, really. No goverment body is really able to react quickly enough to deal with changes in the market, and that was all fine 40 years ago, but the speed with which markets appear, evolve and mutate into unrecognisable form is now just blisteringly fast.

  4. PBuon

    When I buy a MacBook I get iMessage. Why are they treated differently?

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      Stop

      IMessage can hardly be considered to dominate any market, not least because it only runs on Apple devices.

      The complaint is that Microsoft's bundling of Teams with Office is anticompetitive because you automatically get a Teams account. This increases the barrier to entry for competing software such as Slack or Zoom and can thus be considered an abuse of a market power by Microsoft, because why would users go looking for alternative software when they already have something that, apparently, already does the job?

      A better comparison for Apple would be the synthetic restrictions on apps that can be installed on I-Phones such as browsers. Here the EU has, indeed, acted and forced concessions from Apple.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Teams doesn't come with Office

    I'm confused. The proper version of Teams doesn't come with Office. It's annoying that you have to download it separately!

    Is this the personal version of it? If that is the case, then it's not one that businesses would use anyway. I'm not saying that's cool or problematic for competition amongst personal messaging tools, but I also don't see what the major problem is as I don't think it's bundled with Office in the first place.

    I've missed something - but what?!

    1. Lee D Silver badge

      Re: Teams doesn't come with Office

      It does (or used to until recently) - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/business/microsoft-365-business-standard?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

      https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/use-the-office-offline-installer-f0a85fe7-118f-41cb-a791-d59cef96ad1c#OfficePlans=signinorgid

      Quote:

      Step 2 - Download and install Office

      The drop-down list below contains detailed steps that show how to download and install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise or Microsoft 365 Apps for business.

      If you have a Microsoft 365 Apps for business or Microsoft 365 Business Standard plan, you need to download the Microsoft 365 Apps for business version

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about Excel? Think of the spreadsheets!

    But...

    (for example)

    Excel is also included with an Office 365/Microsoft 365 subscription. I don't see other spreadsheet vendors filing anti-trusts? What's so special about Teams?

    A/C (because to my horror it appears that I've just mildly defended Teams, God rest my Soul).

    1. Cruachan Bronze badge

      Re: What about Excel? Think of the spreadsheets!

      Depends who complains about antitrust and what it is that they sell. If Lotus Smartsuite was still a thing then no doubt they'd be complaining about all the apps in included in "Microsoft 365 Apps for Business" or whatever they're calling it today.

      Epic Games for example don't care about iMessage being included on an Apple device (example someone gave above) they only care about the margin Apple are taking on in-app purchase in the appstore.

    2. m4r35n357 Silver badge

      Re: What about Excel? Think of the spreadsheets!

      I don't see other spreadsheet vendors.

    3. Charlie Clark Silver badge
      FAIL

      Re: What about Excel? Think of the spreadsheets!

      A little historic research will point you to investigations around the Microsoft's abuse of the Office file formats to maintain its monopoly. This led to threats to ban the use of MS Office in many European countries and Microsoft's agreement to release a public specification of the file format, OOXML. So, yes, we have been here before.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Making us use Teams

    Is on the level of War crimes

  8. parrot

    Vikings

    Waitress: You can't have Word Excel Teams and Outlook without the Teams.

    Wife: I DON'T LIKE TEAMS!

    Husband: Now dear, don't cause a fuss. I'll have your Teams. I love it. I'm having Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Slack Teams Teams Teams and Teams!

    Waitress: Slack is off.

    Husband: Well could I have her Teams instead of Slack then?

    Waitress: You mean Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams Teams and Teams...?

    Vikings: LOVELY TEAMS! WONDERFUL TEAMS! TEAMS TEAMS TEAMS TEAMS! etc...

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