Rumor: EU starts investigation into Microsoft for including Teams with Office

The European Commission would start an investigation into Microsoft for bundling its chat software Teams with the office suite Office. Competitor Slack had filed a complaint about this with the EU.

The investigation would start next week, reports Financial Times based on four sources involved in the case. The EU and Microsoft have discussed and Microsoft has made a concession, but it does not go far enough for the EU, the business newspaper writes. That concession would be to no longer bundle Teams with Office.

Three years ago, Slack filed an official complaint against Microsoft with the EC. Slack wants the European Commission to launch an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s practices due to its dominant position in the market. Microsoft would use that dominance to thwart competitors like Slack. The complaint mainly focuses on Teams. That chat service will be linked by default to the market-dominant Office, Slack says, meaning it will be installed by millions of users and “hiding the true costs from business users.” Teams came onto the market in 2017.