On Monday, Microsoft announced that it will globally offer its chat and video app, Teams, as a standalone product, separate from its Office suite. This decision comes six months after the company unbundled the two offerings in Europe, aiming to mitigate potential EU antitrust penalties.
The European Commission’s investigation into Microsoft’s integration of Office and Teams stems from a complaint filed in 2020 by Slack, a competing workspace messaging app owned by Salesforce.
Teams, introduced to Office 365 in 2017 at no extra cost, replaced Skype for Business and gained popularity during the pandemic, particularly for its video conferencing capabilities.
Critics argue that bundling these products gives Microsoft an unfair advantage. In response to feedback from the European Commission, Microsoft began offering Office and Teams separately in the EU and Switzerland as of August 31 last year.
To provide clarity and flexibility for customers globally, Microsoft announced plans to extend this unbundling initiative beyond the EU and Switzerland. They are introducing new commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams for regions outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland, alongside a standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in those regions.
Effective April 1, customers can choose to continue with their current licensing arrangements, renew, update, or switch to the new offerings. Office prices without Teams will range from $7.75 to $54.75 for new commercial customers, while Teams Standalone will cost $5.25. Prices may vary depending on location and currency, with current packaged product prices undisclosed by the company.
Despite these measures, Microsoft still faces potential EU antitrust charges. Rivals are critical of the fees and the compatibility of their messaging services with Office Web Applications. Microsoft has a history of EU antitrust fines, totaling 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) over the past decade for bundling products. If found guilty of antitrust breaches, the company could face fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover.
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