EU to launch antitrust investigation against Microsoft in coming months – Kommersant
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EU authorities are going to launch an antitrust investigation against Microsoft in the coming months. This was announced today, July 3, by the agency Reuters citing sources familiar with the situation. The investigation will focus on Microsoft’s corporate messenger – Teams, which the company has tied to the Office 365 package and sells them as a single product.
The investigation is related to filed back in 2020 with a complaint from another corporate messenger, Slack, owned by Salesforce. Complainers say Microsoft is abusing its market dominance and forcing Teams on its business customers. Prior to this, the EU authorities studied the complaint, and now, according to Reuters sources, they are ready to launch an official investigation against Microsoft.
It is reported that in 2022 the company began negotiations with the European Commission on this issue, offering to reduce the price of a version of Office 365 without Teams. However, according to sources, the European Commission requires a more significant reduction in the price of the product than suggested by Microsoft. The European Commission declined to comment on information about the investigation. Microsoft said that they continue to discuss this issue with the European Commission and are ready for “pragmatic solutions.”
In the previous decade, Microsoft had already had to pay a total of €2.2 billion for violations of European antitrust rules.
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