The European Commission (EC) has been firing on all cylinders in holding big tech to account through various fines and enforcement actions, attempting to create a more competitive landscape in a space that has become increasingly monopolized.
Microsoft has been in a years-long dispute with the EC, which opened an antitrust probe in 2023 after Slack filed a complaint in 2020 alleging that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams and Microsoft 365 was anticompetitive.
The company unbundled the two products in the EU shortly thereafter in a bid to avoid antitrust fines, but it wasn’t enough to appease the EC. In 2024, the Commission found that Microsoft did not go far enough and was still in violation of antitrust laws, risking massive fines.
This week, Microsoft responded with a more robust set of commitments. Its productivity software suites will continue to be offered without Teams in the European Economic Area (EEA) for at least seven years. Minimum price deltas will be set between versions of the suites that include Teams and those which do not.
Microsoft has also offered to align these options and pricing structures for its suites and Teams globally should the EC accept its proposal. Interoperability enhancements that make it easier to use third-party competitors to Teams were also included in the proposal.
"The proposed commitments are the result of constructive, good-faith discussions with the European Commission over several months. We believe that they represent a clear and complete resolution to the concerns raised by our competitors and will provide European customers with more choices," said Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft's VP of European Government Affairs.
The EC has begun an open feedback period, seeking comments from competitors and citizens on whether the proposed commitments by Microsoft are adequate and place the company back within the bounds of the EU's antitrust regulations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-attemps-to-avoid-eu-fines-by-further-decoupling-teams-and-office-170519085.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsoft-attemps-to-avoid-eu-fines-by-further-decoupling-teams-and-office-170519085.html?src=rssMelden Sie sich an, um einen Kommentar hinzuzufügen
Andere Beiträge in dieser Gruppe
Amazon Prime Day has been a summer mainstay for years at this point and this year is no exception. Prime Day will r
The first thing in F1 the Movie, before a single word of dialog is uttered, is a pair of AirPods Max. They're so comfortable, Brad Pitt's lovable loser protagonist Sonny Hayes is able to s
Noise-cancelling headphones are a must-have for anyone who travels often and wants to drown out airplane noise, commuters who want some peace and quiet amongst the crowds and anyone else looking to
For years now, most Chromebooks have run some variety of Intel or AMD processor. The occasional device used a MediaTek chip, but they were often underpowered and cheap devices that were hard to rec
