The European Commission invites stakeholders to comment on Microsofts commitments to address competition concerns regarding the integration of their communication and collaboration product Teams with popular productivity suites Office 365 and Microsoft 365, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook.

Microsoft proposes offering versions of these suites without Teams at a reduced price, allowing customers to switch to suites without Teams, providing improved interoperability for Teams competitors, and enabling customers to move their data out of Teams. Stakeholders are encouraged to share their views on these commitments.

The Commissions investigation

Microsoft is a global technology company offering services including productivity software and cloud computing. Teams is a cloud-based communication and collaboration platform.

Software suppliers, such as Microsoft, increasingly offer software as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Microsoft has a suite-centric business model that combines multiple software types in a single offering.

In July 2023, the Commission began a formal investigation, which preliminarily found that since April 2019, Microsoft has linked Teams to its core SaaS productivity applications, in violation of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement.

The Commission found that this linkage limited competition in the market for communication and collaboration products, giving Teams a distribution advantage, exacerbated by limited interoperability between Teams competitors and Microsoft products.

Following the investigation, Microsoft made changes to the distribution of Teams, but the Commission found these insufficient. Further changes in Microsofts conduct are needed.

The proposed commitments

To address the Commissions concerns, Microsoft has offered the following commitments:

• Offer versions of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams at a reduced price and not provide higher discounts for suites with Teams.
• Provide EEA customers with repeated opportunities to switch to suites without Teams.
• Allow Teams competitors access to and effective interoperability with certain Microsoft products and services.
• Enable EEA customers to move their Teams data to competing solutions.

The commitments will remain in force for seven years, except for interoperability and data portability obligations, which will last ten years. A monitoring trustee will oversee the implementation of the commitments.

The Commission invites stakeholders to provide feedback on the commitments within one month. The full text of the commitments is available on the Commissions website.

Background

On 27 July 2023, the Commission launched a formal investigation into Microsofts distribution of Teams. This followed complaints from Slack Technologies, Inc. and alfaview GmbH.

On 25 June 2024, the Commission sent Microsoft a statement of objections about the abuse of its dominant position by linking Teams to its core SaaS products.

Article 102 TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position that may affect trade within the EU and restrict competition.

More information is available on the Commissions website, under case numbers AT.40721 and AT.40873.