The European Union is gearing up to launch fresh antitrust charges against Microsoft, citing concerns that the tech giant is unfairly leveraging its industry dominance to stifle competition with its Teams video conferencing app.
After already being under the magnifying glass for Teams and subsequently unbundling it from Microsoft 365 subscriptions, the tech giant is under yet more scrutiny by European antitrust regulators.
Insiders familiar with the matter (via The Financial Times) revealed that the European Commission is on the verge of issuing a formal charge sheet against Microsoft.
Microsoft is in trouble over Teams… again
Of particular concern is the fear among rivals that Microsoft will prioritize compatibility with its own software, potentially putting competing video conferencing apps at a disadvantage. Additionally, the lack of data portability raises potential barriers for users looking to swap to other services.
Since unbundling Teams from Microsoft 365 in Europe, Microsoft has also offered to unbundle it from other suites, including Office, on a global scale. However, Redmond’s efforts appear not to have been enough to pacify European Commissioners.
The roots of this conflict trace back to a formal complaint filed by Slack in 2020 – since then, tensions have mounted and antitrust regulators have stepped it up a notch in the fight against many tech giants’ dominance.
For Microsoft, the potential consequences could be extremely severe, with fines as high as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU competition law. Microsoft continues to be the world’s most valuable company, worth an estimated $3.08 trillion. The company just reported $61.9 billion in quarterly earnings, up 17% year-on-year.
Microsoft declined to comment.
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