The Strategist

EU opens antitrust probe against Microsoft over Slack’s complaint



07/28/2023 - 03:32



The European Commission has launched an investigation into Microsoft in response to a complaint from Slack. The latter said that the company was abusing its dominant position by forcing its Teams platform on subscribers of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 packages.



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According to the regulator's website, the European Commission has opened an inquiry into Microsoft because the company forces its corporate platform Teams on users of Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software. The European Commission claims that this might be against EU competition laws.

The creator of the Slack communication platform, Slack Technologies, filed a complaint against Microsoft. Microsoft, in its opinion, forces Teams on users of its software solutions. The company may have broken Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, which forbids the abuse of a dominating position, the EC says.

The Financial Times notes this is the company's first such probe in more than ten years. Back in 2009, the company received fines of around €2 billion due to the EU's dissatisfaction with Microsoft's too close integration of the Internet Explorer browser with the Windows operating system.

source: ft.com