Microsoft has managed to escape unscathed from an antitrust investigation by the European Commission, which could have led to huge fines for the company.
How? It promised to remove the Teams messaging app from its suites ,
The Commission on Friday approved concessions from Microsoft to address EU competition concerns, including the removal of the Teams app from its Office productivity suite, ending a multi-year investigation that began with complaints from rival messaging app Slack in 2020.
Microsoft promised that for the next seven years, it will provide Microsoft 365 and Office 365 without the Teams app and at a lower price, allowing customers to pay more to add the app to their suites if they want.
Microsoft will offer some versions of Microsoft 365 and Office 365 without Teams at a price 50% lower than the versions that include the app. In doing so, Microsoft avoided punitive measures and a large fine, as the Commission's penalties for violating competition rules can reach up to 10% of annual global revenue. Considering that the company recorded revenue of $245 billion last year, 10% is a lot of money.
There is one more interesting detail.
The Commission managed to convince Microsoft to agree to open its APIs to enable interoperability in key features between its suite and third-party messaging tools, for the next five years…
The Commission's official announcement states that this will open the market for other providers of communication tools in Europe.
Already a customer? Microsoft will allow customers with long-term licenses the option to switch to a suite without Teams…
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
