The EU is preparing to expose Microsoft to new troubles. It’s getting harder for teams

• Slack lawsuit in 2020 could lead to defenses being filed

• This marks the start of a process that could mean a fine of up to 10% of Microsoft’s annual revenue.

The relevance of Microsoft Teams as a video conferencing solution is noticeable, but the European Union doesn’t like how it got to this point. In fact, in the Financial Times they report that European regulators will soon Microsoft to be sued for anti-competitive practices.

The European Commission is moving ahead with developing a formal statement of objections to Microsoft, according to sources close to the process. This document sets out the body’s preliminary opinion if a company is found to have violated European Union competition rules.

In early April, Microsoft already made some changes to the licensing terms of Microsoft 365, Office 365 and Microsoft Teams to avoid such problems. Among other things, it became possible to stop including Teams as part of Office both in Europe and in the rest of the world.

It seems that this was not enough for the European Union. According to the FT, Microsoft’s competitors in the space claim Teams works better on Windows than other alternatives because the Redmond company supports its development. They also highlight that Microsoft’s prices mean there is very little incentive for users to choose other video conferencing apps.

The investigation process and this possible statement of objections is another chapter a story that started in 2020 when Slack sued Microsoft before the European Commission.

The move joins others in which Microsoft has been targeted by European Union regulators in recent years. In 2013, the Commission fined Redmond €561 million for its attempts to resolve complaints related to Internet Explorer, but the company had already faced an even larger fine of €899 million a few years earlier.

The EU’s investigation into Teams was reopened last summer and a statement of objections is expected to be published in a few weeks. Several Microsoft competitors will meet with European Commission officials this week, according to sources close to the process.

Regardless, Microsoft may again make changes to the way it delivers Teams, and even these new conversations and meetings don’t guarantee that the statement of objections and legal action will finally go into effect.

The fine for Microsoft can be colossal: up to 10% of your annual income, although this measure has never been used against large technology companies when they faced antitrust proceedings. Apple, which could have recently been fined by this percentage, ended up receiving a fine of €1.8 billion, roughly 0.5% of its 2023 revenue.

In Hatak | Europe has approved that digital identification will be voluntary. We already know that in practice this will be mandatory.