Microsoft Might Have Breached Competition Rules Over Teams Bundling, EU Says

By Mauro Orru

European Union antitrust officials said Microsoft might have stifled competition in the bloc over its bundling of Teams with its popular productivity software.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had sent Microsoft a so-called statement of objections--a formal step to inform parties of objections against a potential deal or market practices.

"We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses," said Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition czar. "If confirmed, Microsoft's conduct would be illegal under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to reply to our concerns."

The move comes almost a year after the EU opened a formal investigation to determine whether Microsoft breached competition rules by tying or bundling its communication and collaboration product Teams to Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 25, 2024 06:00 ET (10:00 GMT)

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