What are the potential consequences for Microsoft if found guilty of antitrust violations?

Microsoft is facing an antitrust probe in Europe for bundling Teams with Microsoft 365. Teams is a communication and collaboration tool that competes with other products such as Slack, Zoom, or Google Meet. Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service that includes various Microsoft apps and cloud services, such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, and more.

The European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union that governs regulations for its 27 member nations, said it is looking into a complaint that claimed Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with Microsoft 365 was unfair and may have breached EU competition rules. The complaint was filed by Slack, which is owned by Salesforce and is one of the main rivals of Teams in the market.

The Commission said it is concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) for communication and collaboration products. The Commission said Microsoft’s practices may constitute “anti-competitive tying or bundling” — meaning they could prevent suppliers of other communication and collaboration tools from competing on a level playing field.

The Commission said it will investigate whether Microsoft may have limited the interoperability between its productivity suites and competing offerings, meaning that Teams may work better with other Microsoft products than it does with its competitors. The Commission also said it will examine whether Microsoft may have granted Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice of whether or not to include access to that product when they subscribe to their productivity suites.

The probe comes after Slack made its complaint to the EU public in 2020, accusing Microsoft of illegally tying Teams into its market-dominant Office productivity suite and claiming its actions had resulted in “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers. Slack also alleged that Microsoft was using its market power to create a “closed ecosystem” that favors its own products.

Microsoft has denied the allegations and said that Teams has been “embraced” by the market in “record numbers” as a result of COVID-19 driving uptake of video conferencing and other digital comms tools. Microsoft also said that it respects the European Commission’s work on this case and takes its own responsibilities very seriously. Microsoft said it will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns.

The outcome of this investigation could have significant implications for both Microsoft and its competitors, as well as for the customers who use its products. The European Commission has the power to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s annual worldwide turnover if it finds that it has violated EU competition rules. The Commission can also order the company to stop its anti-competitive practices and take measures to restore effective competition.

What do you think about this case? Do you use Teams or any other communication and collaboration tools?