The American corporation Microsoft has offered the European Commission that its Office suite without the Teams application will be cheaper than when sold together with the application. This is the company's response to the threat of a fine from Brussels.
The EC will seek the opinion of the company's competitors and customers before deciding whether to accept the company's offer. The fact that such a proposal had reached the EC was first reported by Reuters earlier this week.
The case has its roots in 2020, when the producer of the Slack instant messenger filed a complaint with the European Commission against Microsoft, accusing the company of violating EU competition regulations. According to the complainant, Microsoft forced customers to install the Teams application through its default integration with the Office suite. This was supposed to make it harder for competing messengers to fight for customers. Moreover, Office users did not have the option to remove the Teams messenger, which, according to the complainant, violates EU antitrust rules.
If the EC accepted the complaint, the American giant would be threatened with a huge financial penalty.
Microsoft Vice President Nanna-Louise Linde said, as quoted by Reuters, that the proposal is a “clear and comprehensive solution to the concerns raised by competitors and will give Europeans more choice”. The maximum price difference between the two packages – with and without Teams – is to be 8 euros.
“We hope that (…) the European Commission will conclude that the proposed commitment responds to its concerns and will take a final decision to close the investigation in the coming months,” Linde added.
Microsoft is one of the largest and most recognizable technology companies in the world. It was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The company is best known for the Windows operating system, which is used on most personal computers around the world.
Teams is its communications app that enables chatting, video conferencing, file sharing, and other online collaboration.
From Brussels Łukasz Osiński (PAP)
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