EU opens Microsoft antitrust investigation into Groups bundling

The European Fee is opening a proper antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of its Groups software program with its Workplace productiveness suite. Slack initially filed an anti-competitive criticism in opposition to Microsoft with the European Fee in July 2020, simply months after a worldwide pandemic started and the Microsoft Groups userbase began to develop quickly.

The European Fee will now perform an in-depth investigation into whether or not Microsoft could have breached EU competitors guidelines by tying or bundling Microsoft Groups to its Workplace 365 and Microsoft 365 productiveness suites.

“Distant communication and collaboration instruments like Groups have turn out to be indispensable for a lot of companies in Europe,” explains Margrethe Vestager, government vice-president in command of competitors coverage on the European Fee. “We should due to this fact be sure that the markets for these merchandise stay aggressive, and firms are free to decide on the merchandise that finest meet their wants. That is why we’re investigating whether or not Microsoft’s tying of its productiveness suites with Groups could also be in breach of EU competitors guidelines.”

Slack’s authentic criticism alleged that Microsoft had “illegally tied” its Microsoft Groups product to Workplace and is “power putting in it for tens of millions, blocking its elimination, and hiding the true price to enterprise prospects.” Now EU regulators are absolutely investigating the scenario, after Microsoft reportedly provided a concession to the EU to cease bundling Groups with Workplace. This clearly wasn’t sufficient to keep away from an official antitrust investigation — the Monetary Occasions reported just lately that EU regulators and Microsoft couldn’t agree on whether or not the elimination of bundling can be restricted to only the EU and the way costs may be impacted to make sure competitors remains to be truthful.

Microsoft additionally just lately determined to take away its Microsoft Groups integration in Home windows 11. The Chat performance in Home windows 11 was solely ever obtainable for shoppers and never the important thing enterprise customers that have been the main focus of Slack’s criticism. However Microsoft may have enabled enterprise help sooner or later on this built-in model, and it’s attainable the EU probe may need spooked Microsoft into killing the mixing altogether.

That is the primary time Microsoft has confronted an antitrust investigation within the EU for practically 15 years, following two large circumstances associated to Home windows Media Participant and Web Explorer bundling. In 2004 the European Fee ordered Microsoft to supply a model of Home windows with out Media Participant bundled. This resulted in a Home windows XP N model obtainable in EU markets.

In 2009, the EU additionally investigated the bundling of Web Explorer with Home windows and Microsoft ended up promoting a Home windows 7 E model of its working system in Europe with out Web Explorer bundled. Microsoft was additionally pressured to implement a browser poll field in its Home windows working system to make sure customers have been offered with a alternative of net browsers. Microsoft was ultimately fined $730 million for failing to incorporate the browser poll in Home windows 7 SP1.

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