Microsoft in EU antitrust crosshairs over Teams, Office tying

Microsoft on Thursday found itself the target of an EU antitrust investigation over the tying of its chat and video app Teams with its Office product, putting it at risk of a hefty fine.
The U.S. tech giant has racked up 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in EU antitrust fines in the previous decade for practices in breach of EU competition rules, including tying or bundling two or more products together.
It has since then sought adopted a more conciliatory approach with the European Commission.
The European Commission’s investigation followed a complaint by Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack in 2020 and after the U.S. tech giant’s offer of remedies failed to address the EU competition enforcer’s concerns.
The EU competition enforcer said it was concerned that Microsoft may be abusing and defending its market position in productivity software by restricting competition in the European communication and collaboration products market.