Report: Microsoft to Face EU Antitrust Investigation of Office

Citing multiple sources, Reuters today reported that the antitrust regulators in the EU’s European Commission plan to soon launch a formal antitrust investigation of Microsoft Office because remedy discussions with the software giant broke down.

The EU’s preliminary investigation was triggered by Slack, which filed a competition complaint in 2020, alleging that was abusing its market dominance using illegal and anti-competitive business practices, including by tying Microsoft Teams to its “dominant Office product” and blocking its removal, a “carbon copy” of its “illegal behavior during the ‘browser wars.’”

I have some opinions about this case. But with multiple antitrust woes in the EU—the European Commission is investigating Azure, and it previously investigated, but allowed, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard—the software giant moved quickly to placate the regulators. And in April, we learned that Microsoft offered to stop bundling Teams with Office, though the new Reuters report notes that the firm actually just offered to sell Office for less in version in which Teams wasn’t bundled.

According to the report, the EU was looking for a deeper price cut than Microsoft was willing to make. And now that the two sides can’t reach an agreement, it looks like the EU will be offering up its own solutions to this problem. But a Microsoft spokesperson suggested that all isn’t lost and that the two sides could still line up.

“We continue to engage cooperatively with the [European] Commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well,” they said.