EU Charges Microsoft with Anti-Competitive Practices Over Teams Bundling

On Tuesday, Brussels accused Microsoft Corp MSFT of engaging in anti-competitive behavior by bundling its Teams app with its Office suite.

The EU’s charge sheet alleges that this bundling gives Teams an undue advantage, harming competitors such as Atlassian Corp’s TEAM Slack and Zoom ZM, Reuters reports.

On Tuesday, the European Union issued a formal charge sheet to Microsoft, outlining concerns that integrating Teams with Office unfairly disadvantages other video conferencing apps.

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Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s executive vice president for competition policy, stated that if Microsoft’s conduct is confirmed, it would be illegal under EU competition rules.

In April, Microsoft attempted to address regulatory concerns by proposing to unbundle Teams from Office products beyond Europe.

Microsoft aims to settle the case to avoid formal charges and a potential fine of up to 10% of its annual global revenues.

Meanwhile, the company is also facing heightened scrutiny over its $13 billion partnership with OpenAI, with Brussels considering a full probe.

The European Commission is focusing on Microsoft and investigating other major tech companies.

Over the last decade, Microsoft doled out $1.71 billion (1.6 billion euros) in EU antitrust fines.

Microsoft stock gained over 36% in the last 12 months. Investors can gain exposure to the stock via SPDR Select Sector Fund – Technology XLK and iShares Global Tech ETF IXN.

Price Action: MSFT shares are trading higher by 0.08% at $447.63 at the last check on Tuesday.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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