The software program massive is probably to stand an EU antitrust probe as EU regulators step up their scrutiny of a grievance towards Microsoft through Salesforce-owned place of business chat app Slack, humans acquainted with the problem stated on Thursday.
Last year, Slack complained to the European Commission that Microsoft unfairly included its place of business chat and video app Teams into Office products. Microsoft released Teams in 2017, hoping to seize a slice of the fast-growing, beneficial place of business collaboration market. Slack is urging EU opposition enforcement to reserve Microsoft to split Teams from Office suites and promote them one after the other at a truthful business price.
The European Commission despatched every other batch of questionnaires to Microsoft competitors final month, following an October survey, in step with humans acquainted with the problem. This is an indication that the EU opposition enforcement employer is getting ready for a proper investigation. “The European Commission is calling at Microsoft`s interoperability and bundling operations, however this time in greater detail. They are searching out facts in order to permit them to perceive remedies,” stated one of the humans. “They are getting ready for an investigation,” stated every other character acquainted with the problem.
Microsoft has been fined 2.2 billion euros (approximately 16.four billion yuan) during the last decade for alleged bundling and different practices. The European Commission and Microsoft declined to comment.