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European Union

European Commission Accepts Microsoft's Commitments to Address Competition Concerns Related to Teams

Strategic Insights

— 2 min read

The European Commission has accepted Microsoft's commitments to address EU competition concerns relating to its popular team collaboration platform Teams. These commitments will be legally binding under EU antitrust rules and aim to restore fair competition in the market for cloud-based communication and collaboration products. Microsoft has agreed to make available versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams and at a reduced price, allowing customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams, and providing interoperability for key functionalities between communication and collaboration tools that compete with Teams and certain Microsoft products.

Key Takeaways:

  • Microsoft has committed to making available versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams and at a reduced price, starting May 2025.
  • The company will allow customers with long-term licenses to switch to suites without Teams, enabling them to deploy these suites in data centers worldwide.
  • Microsoft has agreed to provide interoperability for key functionalities between communication and collaboration tools that compete with Teams and certain Microsoft products.
  • The company will enable customers in the EEA to extract their Teams messaging data for use in competing solutions.
  • Microsoft has amended its initial proposal, committing to increase the price difference between some Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams and the corresponding suites with Teams by 50%.
  • The Commission will monitor the implementation of these commitments through a monitoring trustee, who will also mediate in case of disputes between third parties and Microsoft.
  • The commitments will remain in force for seven years, except for those related to interoperability and data portability, which will remain in force for ten years.

Statistics:

  • The Commission's investigation into Microsoft's conduct related to Teams was opened on 27 July 2023, following a complaint by Slack Technologies, Inc.
  • The investigation led to the opening of a second antitrust investigation on 25 June 2024, following a complaint by alfaview GmbH.
  • 16 May 2025 to 16 June 2025: the Commission launched a market test on the commitments offered by Microsoft, which resulted in both Slack Technologies, Inc. and alfaview GmbH withdrawing their complaints.
  • The commitments will be reviewed by a monitoring trustee, who will also mediate in case of disputes between third parties and Microsoft.
  • The Commission will impose a fine of up to 10% of Microsoft's worldwide annual turnover and/or a periodic penalty payment of 5% per day of its daily turnover if the company does not honour the commitments.

Sources:

  • European Commission's press release, "Commission accepts commitments offered by Microsoft to address competition concerns related to Teams" (13 September 2023)
  • European Commission's case register, case numbers AT.40721 and AT.40873
  • European Commission's Regulation 1/2003
  • Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement)
  • Microsoft's commitments to the European Commission, as published on the Commission's competition website

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