On February 11, Reuters quoted three sources as saying that Microsoft has proposed to widen the price difference between Office products sold with the chat and video application Teams and software sold without the application, aiming to avoid possible EU antitrust fines.
The move comes after Salesforce-owned Slack complained to the European Commission that Microsoft bundled Teams with Office. Previously, German competitor alfaview also filed a similar complaint with EU regulators in 2023. Teams was added to Office 365 for free in 2017 and eventually replaced Skype for Business, which became popular for its video conferencing capabilities during the epidemic.
By increasing the price difference between Office and Teams, Microsoft aims to give rivals room to sell their products at competitive prices, thereby attracting users to switch to other products. In 2023, Microsoft has separated Teams from Office. Office without Teams is priced at 2 euros less than Office with video applications, while the monthly fee for the independent version of Teams is 5 euros.
It is reported that the European Commission has asked some companies to provide feedback and asked them to respond by this week in order to decide whether to conduct formal market tests. In addition, Microsoft has proposed better interoperability provisions to lower the entry barrier for competitors, making it easier to compete in the market.
Regarding the above news, the EU competition law enforcement agency and Microsoft declined to comment. It is worth noting that 20 years ago, Microsoft was slapped with an antitrust fine of 2.2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) by the European Union for bundling two or more products. EU fines can range up to 10% of a company's annual global revenue.