Microsoft is separating Teams from Office worldwide

Under pressure from European Union competition watchdogs, US tech giant Microsoft has separated its Teams video conferencing software from its Office software suite.

Microsoft will sell its Teams chat app to customers around the world separately from Office, a spokesperson for the US tech giant told Reuters. Last year, Microsoft began selling Teams in the European Union and Switzerland separately from Office to avoid an antitrust fine from the EU Commission.

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“To ensure clarity for our customers, we are expanding the steps we took last year to separate the M365 and O365 teams in the EEA and Switzerland for customers around the world,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. Teams was added to Office 365 for free in 2017 and later replaced Skype for Business. The product has been very popular during the pandemic due to video conferencing.

But competitors criticized that linking the products gave Microsoft an unfair advantage. Slack Technologies wrote in its complaint that the company illegally linked Teams to its dominant productivity platforms. Then the EU Commission targeted Microsoft and initiated proceedings. “Remote communication and collaboration tools, such as Teams, have become indispensable for many companies in Europe. We must therefore ensure that markets for these products remain open to competition and that companies are free to choose products that meet their needs,” said EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. their needs to the best of their ability.” (APA/Reuters)