Under pressure from the EU

Microsoft decouples Teams from Office worldwide

Under pressure from EU competition regulators, Microsoft is globally decoupling its Teams communication tool from its Office software package. The company will sell its chat app to customers separately from Office, a spokesperson told the Reuters news agency. Microsoft had already begun selling Teams separately from Office in the EU and Switzerland last year in order to avoid an antitrust fine from the EU Commission.

"To ensure clarity for our customers, we are extending the steps we took last year to unbundle Teams from M365 and O365 in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to customers worldwide," said a Microsoft spokesperson. Teams was added to Office 365 for free in 2017 and later replaced Skype for Business. The product enjoyed great popularity during the pandemic due to its video conferencing features.

However, competitors criticized that linking the products gave Microsoft an unfair advantage. In its complaint, Slack Technologies wrote that the company had unlawfully linked Teams to its dominant productivity platforms. The EU Commission then set its sights on Microsoft and initiated proceedings.

"Remote communication and collaboration tools such as Teams have become indispensable for many companies in Europe. We must therefore ensure that the markets for these products remain open to competition and that companies are free to choose which products best meet their needs," explained EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.