In a setback for tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), the European Union (EU) has opened a formal investigation of the company’s bundling of Teams with Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The investigation comes after rival company Slack raised concerns that Microsoft was engaging in unfair business practices by tying and bundling Teams with its popular productivity software.
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The European Commission’s probe aims to determine whether Microsoft’s actions have breached EU competition rules and if the company may be abusing its dominant market position in productivity software.
The European Union commented, “The Commission is concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) for communication and collaboration products.”
This practice, according to the Commission, might grant Teams a distribution advantage while potentially restricting customer choice and interoperability with competing offerings.
Microsoft responded to the antitrust investigation, “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.”
Analysts remain bullish about MSFT stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 27 Buys, one Hold, and one Sell.
