Microsoft faces an EU antitrust investigation in the coming months following discussions with the EU supervisory authority, to avoid such a step that appears to have reached a deadlock, according to people familiar with the matter.
Microsoft, who was fined €2.2 billion in the last decade for practices that violate EU competition rules, including linking or bundling two or more products, found itself in the EU after a complaint by Salesforce of its Slack Workplace Messaging app in 2020.
Microsoft Teams added to Office 365 in 2017 for free, and eventually replaced Skype for Business, according to Indian gadgets360.
Slack claimed that her competition unfairly integrated chat in the workplace and video application teams into her Office product.
Microsoft began conversations with the European Commission last year in an effort to ward off an investigation, and recently offered to lower the price of its Office product without Teams.
People said that the European Commission was seeking to lower prices more than the US software giant offered.
The EU executive declined the comment.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: “We continue to collaborate with the committee in its achievement and are open to practical solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well.”
