Microsoft faces an EU antitrust probe over its bundling of Groups

An investigation into Microsoft’s potential antitrust practices is underway practically three years after Slack first filed a criticism towards the corporate. The European Fee has introduced a probe into if Microsoft bundling Groups with its product suites violated EU competitors guidelines. Slack filed its antitrust criticism in 2020, alleging that Microsoft’s determination to incorporate Groups with Microsoft 365 or Workplace 365 is prohibited and that the corporate blocked some customers from eradicating the software program. 

In April, Microsoft agreed to take away Groups from its Workplace suite in an try to stop a probe, however stated it was unclear how it could achieve this. The hassle wasn’t sufficient to keep away from issues and make a deal. In its announcement opening the investigation, the European Fee stated it “is anxious that Microsoft could grant Groups a distribution benefit by not giving clients a selection on whether or not or to not embody entry to that product once they subscribe to their productiveness suites and should have restricted the interoperability between its productiveness suites and competing choices.” 

A Microsoft spokesperson responded to the information: “We respect the European Fee’s work on this case and take our personal duties very severely. We’ll proceed to cooperate with the Fee and stay dedicated to discovering options that can tackle its issues.” 

This is not the primary time Microsoft has discovered itself in sizzling water with the European Fee. In 2009, the corporate agreed to supply EU customers completely different browser choices as an alternative of forcing them to make use of Web Explorer in Home windows. 4 years later, the European Fee fined Microsoft €561 million ($625 million) after a “glitch” stopped the browser selection display from persistently showing. The present investigation has no determination deadline, so it could be a while earlier than the European Fee publicizes Microsoft’s destiny.