Teams: Microsoft Office users in Europe will not get Teams app bundled, here’s why

Microsoft has announced its decision to no longer offer its video-conferencing platform teams with your productivity suite OfficeIn countries that are part of the European Union. The move is reportedly aimed at avoiding potential EU antitrust fines. In 2020, competing workspace messaging app Slack, owned by Salesforce, filed a complaint against Microsoft for bundling its products.The European Commission Launched an investigation into the tech giant’s method of introducing Office and Teams together.
According to a Reuters report, the proposed changes came a month after the investigation began. The company has decided not to offer Teams with its Office product to make it easier for competing products to work with its software.
Microsoft’s latest move is similar to the initial concessions the company offered when the EC investigation began last month. The report said these concessions failed to address regulatory concerns. The European Union competition watchdog also said it had taken note of the company’s announcement.
Last month, sources claimed the European Commission could bring formal charges against Microsoft in the autumn unless the company improves its offering.
Microsoft added Teams to Office 365 for free in 2017. video conferencing service replaced skype for business And gained popularity during the pandemic.
How will this change affect users?
These new changes will be effective from October 1 and will be applicable European Union (EU) and Switzerland. Microsoft’s core enterprise customers comprise the majority of the company’s commercial businesses in Europe. The company will allow customers to switch versions of Office This does not include teams. However, the monthly subscription to this version will be 2 euros cheaper than the one that comes with Teams. New enterprise customers will also be able to purchase Teams standalone and separately for 5 euros per month.
To help customers and independent software vendors remove data from Teams and use it in another product, the company will introduce new support resources.

Microsoft will also develop a new method to host Office Web Apps. Like Teams, these apps will be hosted within competing apps and services.
What did Microsoft say about the situation?
In a blog post, Nanna-Louise Linde, Microsoft’s vice president for European government affairs, said: “Today we are announcing proactive changes that we hope will begin to address these concerns in a meaningful way, while The European Commission’s investigation is ongoing and we are cooperating.” it.”
Linde said the changes attempt to address two of the EU’s concerns: “Customers should be able to choose a business suite without Teams, at a lower price than those with Teams involved, and we should be able to choose between rival communications and collaboration solutions.” “More should be done to ease interoperability between them.” and Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites”.