By KELVIN CHAN
LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators have accepted Microsoft’s proposed alters to Teams, resolving a long-running antitrust investigation that tarobtained the company’s messaging and videoconferencing app.
The European Commission stated in a statement Friday that Microsoft’s final commitments to unbundle Teams from its Office software suite, including further tweaks following a market test in May and June, are enough to satisfy competition concerns.
The legally binding commitments will remain in force for up to 10 years and allow the company to avoid a potentially hefty fine.
“We appreciate the dialogue with the Commission that led to this agreement, and we turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully,” Microsoft’s vice president of European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde, stated in a statement.
The Commission, acting on a complaint filed by Slack Technologies, accutilized Microsoft of “possibly abusive” practices after an investigation, stateing that it was tying the Teams app to its widely utilized Office business software suite, which includes Word, Excel and Outsee.
Slack, now owned by Salesforce, builds popular workplace messaging software. Alfaview, a German buildr of videoconferencing software, also filed a separate complaint.
Microsoft responded by proposing to build its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software packages available at a discount without Teams, and to let customers switch to packages without Teams. The company also promised to build it clearer for rival software to work with Teams and for utilizers to shift their data to competing products.
Salesforce President Sabastian Niles stated the final decision sconcludes a “clear message” that Microsoft’s ”anticompetitive” bundling of Teams has “harmed businesses, denied customers fair choice, and resulted in many years of lost competition.”
Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s executive vice-president for competition affairs, stated the announcement “opens up competition in this crucial market.”
The announcement comes a week after the Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust authority, fined Google nearly 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) becautilize its ad-tech business breached competition rules, prompting President Donald Trump to threaten retaliation.
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