E.U. Charges Microsoft With Antitrust Violations Over Teams Bundling

Original Article:

Source: Link

European Union regulators on Tuesday charged Microsoft with breaking antitrust rules by bundling its Teams video conferencing and collaboration software with a suite of other productivity tools, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals. Regulators said Microsoft’s packaging of Teams with other well-established software tools in Office 365 and Microsoft 365, which includes programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, amounted to an illegal abuse of market dominance that rival companies like Zoom and Slack could not match. Regulators said businesses essentially had little choice but to take Teams if they wanted other software made by Microsoft. The charges are just the latest in a barrage of announcements by the European Union in recent months in its effort to crack down on the world’s largest tech platforms. On Monday, regulators accused Apple of violating competition rules because of its App Store policies. Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok and X are also facing investigations related to their business practices and services. The Microsoft case has its roots in the Covid-19 pandemic, when videoconferencing and collaboration tools like Zoom, Slack and Teams became essential for remote workforces. In 2020, Slack, now owned by Salesforce, complained to regulators that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with other productivity software was anticompetitive, setting off the initial E.U. investigation.