About six months after separating the Teams application from the Office suite in the European Union, Microsoft will apply the same criteria worldwide, Reuters reports this Monday. This means that The video conferencing application, which gained particular popularity with the Covid-19 pandemic, will now be sold separately from “Office”.
The position is taken after doing the same in August 2023, but only in the EU and Switzerland, in a decision that was seen as a way to avoid a fine from the European Commission, which opened a formal investigation to determine whether Microsoft had violated competition rules by bundling Teams with other productivity software for companies.
The Brussels investigation was based on a complaint from rival Salesforce, owner of Slack, in 2020, which alleges that this product grouping offers a competitive advantage to Microsoft. For new commercial customers, Office prices without the Teams program can range from $7.75 to $54.75. Teams, on its own, costs $5.25, but the price may vary depending on the country and currency, according to Reuters.
Despite this decision, at a time when Brussels’ scrutiny of North American technology giants is increasing, the company may not escape accusations of anti-competitive practices in Europe, according to sources cited by the news agency.
Tags: Microsoft start selling Teams Office suite globally Technologies
