The European Commission is set to open a formal investigation into Microsoft and the nature of how it bundles messaging app Teams into its productivity suites.

Following an initial anti-competitive complaint against the Windows maker from Slack in July 2020, the EC will examine whether Microsoft may have breached EU competition rules by bundling Microsoft Teams to Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

At the time of Slack’s complaint during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the company alleged that Microsoft “illegally tied” Teams to Office and said that it was “force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers.”

While Microsoft had reportedly offered a concession to the EU to stop bundling Teams with Office, a recent FT report said that the company and the bloc could not agree whether the removal of bundling would be limited to just the EU and how pricing would be impacted to ensure fair competition.

Now three years after Slack’s complaint the EC has decided to pull the trigger on a full investigation, with Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy at the European Commission explaining: “Remote communication and collaboration tools like Teams have become indispensable for many businesses in Europe.

“We must therefore ensure that the markets for these products remain competitive, and companies are free to choose the products that best meet their needs. This is why we are investigating whether Microsoft’s tying of its productivity suites with Teams may be in breach of EU competition rules.”

In response to Vestager’s statement, a spokesperson for Microsoft told The Verge: “We respect the European Commission’s work on this case and take our own responsibilities very seriously. We will continue to cooperate with the Commission and remain committed to finding solutions that will address its concerns.”

Microsoft last faced EU investigation in 2009 over the bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows. This led to the creation of a version of Windows 7 for the European market which did not bundle Internet Explorer and included a browser ballot box within the operating system to provide users with a choice of web browsers. Microsoft was subsequently fined €561 million in 2013 when Windows 7 SP1 failed to include the ballot.

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