Microsoft may face EU antitrust investigation

Microsoft may face a European Union (EU) antitrust investigation in the coming months, the Cankaoxiaoxi.com (Reference News website) reported, citing a Reuters story.

The company had previously held talks with EU regulatory organizations in a bid to stave off an investigation but the discussion appears to have reached a roadblock.

Microsoft has been fined 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) over the past decade for practices such as bundling two or more products together that violated the EU’s competition rules.

In 2020, after Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack lodged an official complaint against Microsoft, EU watchdogs began investigating Microsoft’s market dominance.

In 2017, Microsoft added Teams collaboration product to its Office 365 for free and replaced Skype.

Slack claimed that Microsoft had unfairly tied the Teams collaboration product to its Office productivity suite.

Microsoft started its negotiations with the European Commission (EC) last year to stall the investigation. The company recently proposed that it will lower the prices of its Office software that are not bundled with the Teams application.

The EC came to the conclusion that the price difference between Office software with and without the Teams application will ensure fair competition and give consumers more choices.

The EC’s expected price cut is more than that offered by Microsoft.

If Microsoft is eventually found in violation of the anti-monopoly rules of the EU, it may face a fine of up to 10 percent of its global turnover.

But it is still likely that the company could improve its remedy before the investigation is kicked off.