European Union antitrust enforcement authorities plan to launch an antitrust investigation into Microsoft over its Teams video and messaging service, reports today Politico:
An investigation based on a 2020 complaint by Slack will pit Microsoft against the EU, which is preparing a formal audit of the company. The move comes about a decade after the end of a long-running antitrust dispute over its abuse of its position as a powerful software vendor to promote new products and services.
EU officials are focusing on complaints that it is unfair for Microsoft to tie Microsoft Teams and other software to the widely used Office suite.
The European Commission intends to quickly escalate the investigation and is preparing a list of objections with competition problems that exist with the company's conduct.
In recent weeks the EU has sent requests to competitors and Microsoft customers requesting evidence that he intends to use in the investigation. Such access requests are often a prelude to the initiation of a formal investigation.
