Microsoft Mulls Product Shuffling Move To Avoid EU Probe

Microsoft is potentially going to separate its Teams software from its rest of the Office offerings. The actions comes after the EU was allegedly probing the tech giant based on complaints from rivals. This also comes as the EU is penalizing Apple and Google under its new Digital Laws.

Microsoft to Separate  Teams From Rest of Office

According to Reuters, six months after unbundling the two products in Europe to try and avoid a potential EU antitrust charge, Microsoft announced on Monday that it will pitch its chat and video program Teams independently from its Office suite worldwide.

Following a complaint by the rival workspace messaging software Slack, which is owned by Salesforce, in 2020, the European Commission began looking into Microsoft’s integration of Office and Teams.

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Why was Microsoft Teams an Issue?

Teams, which was a free addition to Office 365 in 2017, eventually took the position of Skype for Business. Its video conferencing feature helped Teams gain popularity during the pandemic.

However, competitors claimed Microsoft had an unfair edge because the products are packaged together. On October 1st of last year, the business began selling the two goods separately throughout the EU and Switzerland.

EU Tightens Scrutiny Over Tech Giants

Microsoft’s’ decision and EU’s scrutiny comes after previously it was announced that tech behemoths like Google and Apple may soon have to deal with regulatory challenges in the European Union. There could be hefty fines associated with the European Union’s investigations into whether Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google comply with new laws restricting the power of Big Tech.

People with knowledge of the matter claim that the European Commission is preparing to declare in the next few days that it is opening investigations into the corporations under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The increased costs, rules, and conditions that Apple and Google have set for app store developers will be the EU’s main concern.

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