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EU slaps Microsoft with a $2.4bn penalty, Teams and Office to be separated amidst continuous monopoly lawsuit
Presently under several monopoly lawsuits and a hefty $2.4 billion penalty, Microsoft might be up against additional fines. To prevent this, the decision to market Teams apps independently from Office product has been made by the corporation.
Microsoft has declared its plans to globally market its chat and video application, Teams, independently from its Office product. This decision comes half a year after it separated the two products in Europe in response to possible EU antitrust issues.
Since 2020, the European Commission has been probing Microsoft for packaging Office and Teams together, after receiving a grievance from Slack. Slack is a rival office communication application owned by Salesforce.
In 2017, Teams was introduced to Office 365 at no additional cost and has since become popular, especially during the pandemic, for its video conferencing features, taking over from Skype for Business.
Opponents contended that packaging the products gave Microsoft an unjust benefit. As a result, Microsoft began marketing Office and Teams independently in the EU and Switzerland on August 31 of the previous year.
Microsoft has chosen to expand the global unbundling, according to a representative from the company. This decision was made in response to customer suggestions and to offer international corporations greater purchasing freedom.
Microsoft is rolling out new versions of its commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 packages worldwide, and these will not contain Teams. Moreover, an independent Teams package for Enterprise clients will be on offer in areas outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.
Starting from April 1, clients have the choice to either stick with their existing license agreements or transition to the new options.
The pricing for Office, excluding Teams, for emerging business clients will range from $7.75 to $54.75. On the other hand, Teams as an individual service will be charged at $5.25. However, the prices can differ depending on the country and the currency.
Despite Microsoft's attempts to rectify issues related to monopolistic practices, there is a possibility they still might face accusations from the European Union. Competitors have expressed dissatisfaction over the pricing and interoperability of their messaging services with Office Web Applications.
Over the last ten years, Microsoft has been penalized with antitrust fines amounting to 2.2 billion Euros by the EU for combining products. If found guilty of further antitrust breaches, the company could be slapped with fines equivalent to 10 per cent of its worldwide yearly revenue.
(Incorporating information from various sources)
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