MICROSOFT will unbundle its Teams communications from its popular Office suite in an attempt to assuage the European Union’s antitrust concerns, said the company today.

The European Commission launched an investigation in July to see if the US tech giant was “abusing and defending its market position” by bundling the software together.

If the commission probe finds evidence against Microsoft, the company could face a hefty fine or other ordered remedies.

In a bid to address the concerns, Microsoft will unbundle Teams from its Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the European Economic Area and Switzerland from October 1, said the company’s vice-president on European government affairs Nanna-Louise Linde.

Customers will be able to buy the software without Teams at a lower price, she said.

“We are announcing proactive changes we hope will start to address these concerns in a meaningful way, even while the European Commission’s investigation continues and we cooperate with it,” Linde wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft bundles Teams with its cloud-based Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites, which include its popular Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Excel programmes.

Teams is a platform that allows users to communicate through messages, video calls and file sharing.

The trigger for the commission’s probe was a July 2020 complaint from Slack, a US startup competitor to Teams, which has since been bought by the company Salesforce.

The commission expressed concerns Microsoft may have limited the interoperability between its productivity suites and rival products.

Microsoft will now make it easier for rivals’ software to work with the firm’s own.

There is no set deadline for the EU’s investigation to be completed.

“We will continue to engage with the commission, listen to concerns in the marketplace, and remain open to exploring pragmatic solutions that benefit both customers and developers in Europe,” said Linde. – AFP, August 31, 2023.