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EU slaps Microsoft with a $2.4bn fine; company plans to separate Teams and Office amidst continuing antitrust litigation
Microsoft, currently entangled in several antitrust lawsuits and already burdened with a $2.4 billion penalty, might face further charges. To prevent this, the firm has chosen to market its Teams applications independently from its Office suite.
Microsoft has declared its plan to globally market its chat and video application, Teams, independent of its Office suite. This decision comes half a year after the company split the two products in Europe in response to possible anti-trust issues raised by the EU.
Since 2020, the European Commission has been probing into Microsoft's package deal of Office and Teams. This investigation was initiated due to a grievance filed by Slack, a rival workspace communication application that Salesforce owns.
Teams, first introduced to Office 365 at no cost in 2017, became increasingly popular, especially during the pandemic, due to its video conferencing features which replaced Skype for Business.
Critics contended that packaging the products gave Microsoft an undue benefit. As a result, Microsoft commenced the individual sale of Office and Teams in the EU and Switzerland on August 31 the previous year.
Microsoft has chosen to expand their unbundling worldwide as a reaction to customer opinions, in order to offer international corporations a greater range of buying options, says a representative from the company.
Microsoft is implementing changes that include the launch of new commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 packages worldwide, which will not feature Teams. Furthermore, a separate Teams package for Enterprise clients will be accessible in areas beyond the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.
Starting from April 1, customers have the option to either maintain their existing license agreements or transition to the new plans.
The pricing for Office, excluding Teams, for new business clients will range from $7.75 to $54.75. On the other hand, Teams as a separate service will be priced at $5.25. The costs could differ depending on the country and currency.
Despite Microsoft's attempts to tackle antitrust issues, they may still face potential accusations from the EU, as competitors are complaining about the costs and compatibility of their messaging services with Office Web Applications.
Over the past ten years, Microsoft has been fined 2.2 billion Euros by the EU for packaging products together in a way that violated antitrust laws. If found guilty of further antitrust infringements, the company could be penalized with fines up to 10 percent of its yearly global revenue.
(Incorporating information from various sources)
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