The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it notified Microsoft of a preliminary finding that Microsoft violated EU antitrust rules by tying the Teams communications platform to popular productivity apps in the business versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365.
Vendors of software for business applications, including Microsoft, are increasingly distributing that software as a service (“SaaS”), i.e., software hosted on a cloud infrastructure of the vendor’s choice. The Commission preliminarily considers that Microsoft has a dominant position worldwide in the market for SaaS productivity applications for professional use.
They state that they are concerned that since at least April 2019, Microsoft has bundled the Teams platform with basic productivity SaaS applications, thereby limiting market competition in the communications products market and protecting its position in the productivity software market. and the position of its business model based on packages from competing suppliers of individual software.
– If confirmed, these practices would violate Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“TFEU”), which prohibits the abuse of a dominant position on the market. Sending a notification about the established facts does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation – a statement from the Commission.
– We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its Teams communication platform an unjustified advantage over its competitors, linking it to popular business productivity packages. Market competition for remote communication and collaboration tools is key because they drive innovation in these markets. If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules. Microsoft now has the opportunity to answer our questions – said the executive vice-president responsible for market competition policy Margrethe Vestager said: