European Union antitrust enforcers are planning to launch an antitrust probe against Microsoft’s video and messaging service Teams, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
one on one investigation 2020 complaint More than a decade after Slack took over, Microsoft will again face a formal EU investigation, ending a long-running antitrust dispute over how it pushed new products and services. abused its position as a powerful software supplier. The authorities are focusing on allegations that Microsoft unfairly bundles Microsoft Teams and other software with the widely used Office suite.
The European Commission plans to rapidly advance the investigation and is preparing a statement of objections outlining competition problems with the company’s behaviour, two of the people said. He said that in recent weeks it sent requests to rivals and customers for details of what evidence they plan to use. Such ‘access to file’ requests are often a prelude to sending objections after a formal investigation has begun.
A spokesman for the commission said that “the assessment of the complaint is ongoing.” Microsoft did not immediately respond to Politico’s request for comment.
Microsoft has been targeted separately antitrust complaints From the licensing terms from cloud providers and the practices it allegedly tied to its Azure service.