The European Commission has made legally binding a set of commitments from Microsoft designed to resolve antitrust concerns over the tying of Teams to its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for business customers.

Under the package, Microsoft will sell versions of its suites without Teams at a reduced price, give long‑term licence holders recurring opportunities to switch to suites without Teams, and open up greater interoperability between rival communications tools and Microsoft products. It will also allow customers to move their data out of Teams to competing services. The Commission said earlier tweaks introduced in 2023 and 2024 were “insufficient to address its concerns” and that “more extensive changes were necessary” to end the tying and its effects.

Microsoft has also agreed to increase by 50 per cent the price gap between certain suites without Teams and those that include it, clarify website disclosures so that like‑for‑like offers are displayed side‑by‑side, and publish interoperability and data portability information on developer websites. Most commitments will run for seven years, with interoperability and data portability obligations lasting ten years, monitored by a trustee empowered to mediate disputes and trigger fast‑track arbitration.

Microsoft welcomed the outcome. “We appreciate the dialogue with the Commission that led to this agreement, and we turn now to implementing these new obligations promptly and fully,” said Nanna‑Louise Linde, Microsoft vice‑president for European government affairs.

The case began with a 2023 complaint from Slack, now owned by Salesforce, and a later complaint from German rival alfaview. Regulators’ preliminary view was that bundling Teams gave it an undue distribution advantage in cloud‑based collaboration, reinforced by limits to interoperability with Microsoft’s productivity apps. After market testing the commitments in May and June 2025, Slack and alfaview withdrew their complaints.

The Commission noted that Microsoft plans to align worldwide suites and pricing with the EU package, continue offering suites without Teams for frontline workers and further reduce the price of its largest frontline suite without Teams. Failure to honour the commitments could trigger fines of up to 10 per cent of global annual turnover or daily penalty payments under EU rules.

---