The European Commission has accepted commitments from Microsoft to address EU competition concerns relating to its Teams collaboration platform, making them legally binding under EU antitrust rules.
The commitments address concerns related to the tying of Microsoft Teams to the company’s productivity applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, included in its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for business customers.
Under the commitments, Microsoft will (i) make available versions of these suites without Teams and at a reduced price; (ii) allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams; (iii) provide interoperability for key functionalities between communication and collaboration tools that compete with Teams and certain Microsoft products; and (iv) allow customers to move their data out of Teams to facilitate the use of competing solutions.
By helping to restore fair competition, Microsoft’s commitments will open up the market for other providers of communication and collaboration tools in Europe, says the Commission.
“Organisations big and small across Europe and around the world rely heavily on videoconferencing, chat and collaboration tools, especially since the coronavirus pandemic,” said EC vice-president Teresa Ribera: “With today’s decision, we make binding for seven years or more Microsoft’s commitments to put an end to its tying practices that may be preventing rivals from effectively competing with Teams. Today’s decision therefore opens up competition in this crucial market, and ensures that businesses can freely choose the communication and collaboration product that best suits their needs.”
Microsoft’s commitments will remain in force for seven years, except for the commitments related to interoperability and data portability which will remain in force for ten years.
Implementation will be monitored by a monitoring trustee, who will also mediate in case of disputes between third parties and Microsoft. If a third-party concern persists, the dispute will be subject to fast-track arbitration. The monitoring trustee will report regularly to the Commission.
More information, including the full text of the commitments, will be available on the Commission’s competition website, in the public case register under case numbers AT.40721 and AT.40873.
