The sheer scale of Microsoft Teams dominance could mean big trouble
Microsoft could face an investigation into alleged unfair practices that helped it in Office software space.
Reuters (opens in a new tab) said an EU antitrust investigation could focus on the fact that TV affair service included with the Microsoft 365 suite (formerly Office 365), which includes apps like Word, Excel, and OneDrive cloud storage.
This so-called unfair integration has been highlighted by Slack, another big player in online transactions space – potentially affected by Microsoft 365 Pricing model.
Team vs Slack
Slack is currently priced from $7.25 (£5.75) per user per month on an annual contract, offering full chat support, video conferencing and voice call support.
Microsoft’s cheapest business plan starts at $6 (£4.50) per month, annually and includes Teams, 1TB of cloud storage, and web versions of its main apps. A subscription to the full desktop clients costs from $12 (£7.90) per month.
Reuters says Slack has urged the EU competition enforcement agency to ask Microsoft to sell its Teams platform separately, outside of the Microsoft 365 suite, which would foster better competition from apps like Slack, Zoom. and Google Workspace.
According to the report, the European Commission sent more inquiries after a batch was sent last October, which some believe could be the start of an investigation into the company’s practices. .
Microsoft is currently working on a premium version of Teams, which will introduce things like AI transcription in 40 different languages and more advanced security features. It’s set to launch in Q1 of 2023, but at least for now, this won’t stop the standard edition of Teams remaining part of the broader 365 plan.
TechRadar Pro asked Microsoft for comment – any response will be updated here.