If found in breach of the EU’s antitrust rules, Microsoft risks being fined up to 10% of its global turnover. The EU could open an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s video and messaging platform Teams, stemming from a complaint made by Slack back in July 2020, according to a report by Reuters. Enterprise messaging application Slack, which has since been bought by Salesforce, originally filed a competition complaint against Microsoft citing “illegal and anti-competitive practice of abusing its market dominance to extinguish competition in breach of European Union competition law.” The complaint further alleged that Microsoft has “illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.” Microsoft had seemingly been hoping to address the concerns with the EU before a formal investigation was opened, with Reuters reporting in December 2022 that the tech giant had made a “preliminary offer of concessions” to try and settle the European Commission’s concerns. However, Reuters is now reporting that attempts by Microsoft to remedy the situation have hit a roadblock, specifically that the price reduction Microsoft offered for Office minus the Teams app was not as low as the EU had been hoping. Consequently, an investigation is now likely to take place and if found in breach of the EU’s antitrust rules, Microsoft risks being fined up to 10% of its global turnover. Microsoft has faced a number of sanctions from the European Commission during the last decade, having been fined hundreds of millions of dollars by the Commission in 2004, 2008, and 2015. Earlier this year the company attempted to ward off another potential investigation by reportedly agreeing to change its cloud computing practices in order to avoid an antitrust probe from the EU. That potential investigation stemmed from complaints made by European cloud companies that raised concerns after their customers were asked to pay more to run Microsoft software in non-Microsoft cloud environments, under what they saw as restrictive cloud licensing policies. In a statment, the EU Commission said it had received several complaints regarding Microsoft, including one by Slack about Microsoft’s conduct in relation to its Teams product, which it was assessing based on its standard procedures. Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Related content news analysis Apple earnings: About that iPhone 'slump' in China Based on information from Thursday's earnings report, it seems that data pointing to an iPhone slump in China were over-baked. By Jonny Evans May 03, 2024 9 mins iMac iPhone Apple news Microsoft begins to phase out ‘classic’ Teams Microsoft is encouraging Teams customers to move to the new, faster version of the collaboration app; the older version will be switched off next year. By Matthew Finnegan May 03, 2024 3 mins Microsoft Teams Collaboration Software Productivity Software news analysis Apple confirms it will open up the iPad in Europe this fall The latest efforts to comply with Europe’s Digital Markets Act mean developers can offer to side load apps to both iPhones and iPads in the EU. Apple has also taken steps to improve what it offers to smaller and non-commercial developers in the By Jonny Evans May 02, 2024 6 mins iPad Apple Mobile Apps news Udacity offers laid-off US workers free access to its courses for 30 days Sign-ups will be available over the next 30 days By Lucas Mearian May 02, 2024 4 mins Technology Industry IT Jobs IT Skills Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe