The sheer scale of Microsoft Teams dominance could mean big trouble
>
Microsoft could face an investigation into alleged unfair practices that give it a helping hand in the office software space.
Reuters (opens in new tab) says an EU antitrust investigation could focus on the fact that the video conferencing service is bundled with the Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) suite, which includes apps such as Word, Excel and OneDrive cloud storage.
This so-called unfair integration was highlighted by Slack, another major online collaboration player, which is likely to suffer from Microsoft 365’s pricing model.
Teams against Slack
Slack currently costs from $7.25 (£5.75) per user per month with an annual contract and offers full chat support, video conferencing and voice calling support.
Microsoft’s cheapest business plan costs from $6 (£4.50) per month, per year, and includes Teams, 1TB of cloud storage and web versions of the main apps. A subscription with full desktop clients costs from $12 (£7.90) per month.
Reuters says Slack has urged the EU antitrust enforcement agency to require Microsoft to sell its Teams platform separately, outside of the Microsoft 365 suite, which would foster better competition from the likes of Slack, Zoom and Google Workspace.
The European Commission has reportedly sent out more questionnaires following a batch sent out last October, which some people say could be the start of an investigation into the company’s practices.
Microsoft is currently working on a premium version of Teams that will introduce things like AI transcription in 40 different languages and more advanced security features. It is expected to arrive in the first quarter of 2023, but for now this won’t prevent the standard version of Teams from remaining part of the wider 365 package.
Tech Radar Pro has asked Microsoft for a comment – all responses will be updated here.