Microsoft Corp. risks a heavy fine from the European Union (EU)after regulators accused the company of abusing its market power by linking the video conferencing app Teams to your other business software.
The European Comission issued a statement of objections alleging that the practice of Microsoft to link Teams to your packages office 365 and Microsoft 365 violates the bloc’s competition rules.
The regulator of the EU He said that since at least 2019, the company’s behavior protected its market dominance and gave Teams an advantage over its rivals. This unfair advantage was also driven by limited interoperability between Teams and competing software, the control bodies added.
“Preserving competition in remote communication and collaboration tools is essential as it also encourages innovation in these markets,” EU Competition Commissioner said on Tuesday. Margrethe Vestager.
Penalties for antitrust violations can reach 10% of a company’s overall revenue, although they rarely reach that level.
The company’s attempts to avoid deeper scrutiny of its behavior have so far failed to convince regulators. But the company promised to consider new concessions that could allow it to avoid punishment.
“After disaggregating Teams and take the first steps on interoperability, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions that address the Commission’s remaining concerns,” said Microsoft President, Brad Smithit’s a statement.
The formal warning of the EU It comes after messaging platform Slack filed a complaint with the EU antitrust body in 2019.
Slack was acquired by Salesforce Inc.a provider of cloud-based customer management software, in a $27.7 billion deal in 2021. Like many of its peers, it has been hit by a slowdown in technology spending after the pandemic – announcing plans to cut around 10% of the workforce after staff nearly tripled in the past four years.
The president of Salesforce, Sabastian Nileswelcomed the Commission’s warning and urged the regulator to “move towards a swift, binding and effective solution that restores freedom of choice.”
Using the Teams video app Microsoft surged during the pandemic, when lockouts around the world forced millions of people to work remotely and socially distance. In a short time, the application has gone from about 2 million daily users worldwide in its first year of operation, in 2017, to 300 million in 2023, according to data from Statista.
Critics say that Microsoft was able to harness its power over PC software to make Teams the easiest option for remote workers who already use programs like words and Excel.
Microsoft has spent years fighting antitrust regulators in USA. and Europe over allegations that it unfairly linked products and blocked rivals’ access to Microsoft’s desktop software. Windows. But it has not faced any formal scrutiny of market dominance. EU in a decade, since a 2013 fine for failing to deliver on a promise to offer a selection of web browsers.
Total, Microsoft has accumulated more than 2 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in fines from the EU for antitrust abuses, but has largely avoided closer antitrust scrutiny of its behavior in recent years, in which Google has taken the brunt of the criticism for how it has abused its dominant position.
The $69 billion purchase of the game developer Activision Blizzard by Microsoft sparked the interest of competition regulators around the world, and the EU ended up approving the deal with concessions after initially issuing a formal warning against the operation.
