{"id":43881,"date":"2024-06-26T16:08:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T20:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=43881"},"modified":"2024-07-02T11:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T15:40:32","slug":"eu-charges-microsoft-for-bundling-teams-and-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/26\/eu-charges-microsoft-for-bundling-teams-and-office\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Charges Microsoft for Bundling Teams and Office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kelvin Chan<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

The European Commission said Monday it informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that the U.S. tech giant has been “restricting competition” by bundling Teams<\/a> with core office productivity applications such as Office 365 and Microsoft 365.<\/p>

The commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, said it suspects Microsoft might have granted Teams a “distribution advantage” by not giving customers a choice on whether to have Teams when they purchased the software. The advantage might have been widened by limits on the ability of rival messaging apps to work with Microsoft software, it said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Dare Obasanjo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Four years after Slack complained that Teams being bundled with Office was unfair competition, the EU has charged Microsoft with illegal bundling.<\/p>\n

If found guilty, Microsoft could be fined as much as 10% of global revenues.<\/p>\n

First Apple, now Microsoft. The EU is out for blood this week.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Natasha Lomas<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

It’s not only chat-based apps like Slack that might be impacted. As we pointed out earlier this year, video conferencing companies like Zoom have also potentially been impacted over the years by how Microsoft has bundled Teams — which is an all-in-one product offering messaging, voice and video calls, and conferencing to users. Indeed, since Slack filed its complaint, the EU noted, it’s received another complaint from German company alfaview GmbH, a videoconferencing provider, which it said raised “similar concerns regarding the distribution of Teams.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n