2023-09-06 09:30:34
Microsoft has announced that Microsoft Teams, its enterprise collaboration platform, will soon be available as a standalone product in Europe. This separation of Microsoft Teams from the Microsoft 365 suite will come into effect from October and will affect all countries of the European Economic Area as well as Switzerland.
For companies that have not yet subscribed to the office suite, Microsoft will offer a ” Teams exclu » at a reduced price of €24 per year, i.e. €2 less than the usual rate. Additionally, a standalone version of Microsoft Teams will be available for €5 per month or €60 per year. However, for companies that are already subscribed to the service, there will be no major change. Microsoft clarified that “Enterprise customers who already have an office suite with Teams will be able to choose to continue using it or upgrade to a suite without Teams“. In addition, for small businesses, a Business offer without Teams will now be available at €4.60, which represents a reduction of one euro compared to the current price.
This decision to market Microsoft Teams independently follows to the investigation launched by the European Commission last July to determine whether the integration of Teams into the Microsoft 365 suite might constitute an anti-competitive practice. This investigation was opened following a complaint filed by Slack in 2020, and the Commission is concerned that Microsoft might abuse its dominant position by integrating Teams by default into its office suite.
Specifically, the European Commission is concerned that Microsoft is giving Teams an unfair advantage in distribution by not giving consumers the choice of whether or not to include this app when subscribing to its productivity suites. Additionally, she is concerned that Microsoft will limit interoperability between its productivity suites and competing offerings.
Microsoft, having previously been condemned by the European Commission for abuse of a dominant position, has this time taken a proactive step by working with the Commission to find solutions to the concerns raised. Microsoft also plans to offer a “extensive interoperability with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 applications and services”, to allow companies like Zoom or Salesforce (which owns Slack) to create personalized and integrated experiences with Exchange, Outlook and even Teams.
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