Microsoft Antitrust Problems Again
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New York Times ☛ Microsoft Teams Bundle Hit With E.U. Antitrust Charges
The Microsoft case has its roots in the Covid-19 pandemic, when videoconferencing and collaboration tools like Zoom, Slack and Teams became essential for remote workforces. In 2020, Slack, now owned by Salesforce, complained to regulators that Microsoft’s bundling of Teams with other productivity software was anticompetitive, setting off the initial E.U. investigation.
E.U. regulators said Microsoft had an unfair “distribution advantage” by not giving customers a choice of whether to buy Teams when purchasing other software. Rivals makers of videoconferencing tools also face challenges making their services work with other Microsoft software, regulators said.
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The Register UK ☛ EU accuses Microsoft of antitrust violations over Teams
"Microsoft has been tying Teams with its core SaaS productivity applications, thereby restricting competition on the market for communication and collaboration products and defending its market position in productivity software and its suites-centric model from competing suppliers of individual software," the EC said in a statement.
"In particular, the Commission is concerned that Microsoft may have granted Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice whether or not to acquire access to Teams when they subscribe to their SaaS productivity applications.
"This advantage may have been further exacerbated by interoperability limitations between Teams' competitors and Microsoft's offerings. The conduct may have prevented Teams' rivals from competing, and in turn innovating, to the detriment of customers in the European Economic Area."
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Silicon Angle ☛ EU files antitrust charges against Microsoft for bundling Teams with Microsoft 365
Officials believe that the issue may have been exacerbated by limitations on interoperability between Microsoft 365 and applications that compete with Teams. Several rival collaboration services interoperate with Microsoft 365 through connectors for the suite’s applications. Those connectors enable users to perform tasks such as accessing documents stored in OneDrive, Microsoft’s file sharing platform.
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Wired ☛ Microsoft Faces EU Charges Over ‘Abusive’ Bundling
The European Commission said on Tuesday it found that Microsoft was restricting competition by selling its video-conferencing software Teams together in bundles with the company’s other popular office tools such as Office 365 and Microsoft 365 since at least 2019.
“We are concerned that Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses,” the EU’s competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. “If confirmed, Microsoft’s conduct would be illegal under our competition rules.” The charges announced on Tuesday are only a “preliminary view,” meaning the commission has sent a “statement of objections” to Microsoft and the company has 10 weeks once it receives all the details to respond.
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European Commission ☛ Commission sends Statement of Objections to Microsoft over possibly abusive tying practices regarding Teams
The Commission is concerned that, since at least April 2019, Microsoft has been tying Teams with its core SaaS productivity applications, thereby restricting competition on the market for communication and collaboration products and defending its market position in productivity software and its suites-centric model from competing suppliers of individual software.
In particular, the Commission is concerned that Microsoft may have granted Teams a distribution advantage by not giving customers the choice whether or not to acquire access to Teams when they subscribe to their SaaS productivity applications. This advantage may have been further exacerbated by interoperability limitations between Teams' competitors and Microsoft's offerings. The conduct may have prevented Teams' rivals from competing, and in turn innovating, to the detriment of customers in the European Economic Area.
If confirmed, these practices would infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU'), which prohibits the abuse of a dominant market position.
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Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont ☛ The European Commission launched a probe into Microsoft's Teams last year triggered by a complaint from Slack | National
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NYPost ☛ Microsoft hit with antitrust charges over 'possibly abusive' practices
The European Commission said Monday it informed Microsoft of its preliminary view that the US tech giant has been “restricting competition” by bundling Teams with its core office productivity applications.
On Monday, the commission took aim at another American tech behemoth — Apple. It accused the iPhone maker of preventing other app developers from offering their customers cheaper options outside of its App Store in violation of rules designed to encourage competition.
Update
A couple more links:
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Yey EU
Luckily, the European Union is picking up the slack. Apple is on trial for App Store policies and Microsoft for bundling Teams with office. At least for now.
For me, this doesn’t go anywhere near where it should, as I don’t think allowing Apple to even compete with 3rd party developers is a level playing field. You should not run the market you are competing on. This could lead to one party getting all the sales data and copying the competition offering. Oh wait, Apple and Amazon are already doing it.
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Microsoft is back in EU crosshairs
Two decades after Microsoft’s last EU fine, the EU competition watchdog’s latest action was triggered by a 2020 complaint from rival workspace messaging app Slack, owned by Salesforce.
The European Commission, which acts as the EU competition watchdog, said Teams had been given a distribution advantage while limitations preventing interaction between Teams’ competitors and Microsoft’s offerings further hindered rivals.
More here:
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The US government’s Abusive Monopolist Microsoft problem and what to do about it
To build a secure future, it is critical that the U.S. government invest in a resilient, defensible digital ecosystem.
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European Commission preliminary decision finds Abusive Monopolist Microsoft breached EU antitrust rules
The European Commission notified Abusive Monopolist Microsoft on Tuesday that it has come to the preliminary conclusion that the company violated EU antitrust rules by bundling Teams within its suites of business applications. The investigation against the US company is ongoing.
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EU charges Abusive Monopolist Microsoft with ‘abusive’ bundling of Teams and Office, breaching antitrust rules
The European Union on Tuesday accused Abusive Monopolist Microsoft of breaching antitrust rules with the “abusive” bundling of its Teams and Office products.