Microsoft has avoided an EU fine after the US tech group offered concessions on how it packages together its Teams and Office products, ending a long-running antitrust investigation by the bloc’s regulators.
The probe, which began after a 2020 complaint from Slack, now part of Salesforce, accused Microsoft of abusing its market dominance by tying its video conferencing tool to its widely used suite of productivity applications.
Since the initial complaint, Microsoft has unbundled Teams from Office 365 in the EU, but critics said the changes were too narrow.
In May, the $3.7 trillion (€3.2 trillion) software giant promised concessions, such as continuing the Teams and Office separation for seven years.
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After a market test, Microsoft has since made additional commitments, such as publishing more information on so-called “interoperability” or the ability to use its products with others made by rivals.
These new pledges have satisfied the EU’s regulator, which said on Friday that it helped to restore fair competition and open the market to other providers.
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“These commitments open up competition in the crucial market for videoconferencing and collaboration software”, said Teresa Ribera, the EU’s competition chief at a competition conference in Italy.
Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice-president of European government affairs, said the company welcomed “the dialogue with the commission that led to this agreement, and we turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully”.
The development comes amid growing tensions between the EU and President Donald Trump over the regulation of US big tech companies. After the EU imposed a multibillion-dollar fine on Google earlier this month, Trump has doubled down on threats to hit Europe with more tariffs.
Ribera said that while EU regulators would continue to deploy tough measures, such as big fines, they would also deploy a “soft” approach to reach agreements that could solve antitrust disputes.
“This decision shows that our soft enforcement approach can be particularly important in digital markets, where new products and integration strategies often challenge the boundaries of regulation,” she said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
