Microsoft is in trouble again, this time from Slack for Antitrust
News emerged last year that Microsoft would be at the center of an antitrust probe. This was due to a complaint filed by Slack with the European Commission (EC). Slack had complained regarding Teams, and reports now state that the complaint had been filed and Microsoft would be under scrutiny soon.
Sources within EC have confirmed that Microsoft will be facing a probe soon. This is due to bundling their Teams package with their Microsoft 365 package. The complaint is mainly about Microsoft unfairly treating its competition.
What Was the Microsoft Complaint Regarding?
For the uninitiated, the problem began in 2020 when Slack filed a complaint with the EC. They claimed that Microsoft does not reveal the true cost to enterprise customers and bundles Teams along with the full suite of Microsoft 365.
The complaint also stated that due to Teams being bundled with Microsoft 365, customers were forced to install Teams on machines that installed Microsoft 365 products. Slack wanted Microsoft to remove Teams from the 365 bundle and sell it at a fair price.
What Next?
Only time will tell what the probe reveals. This is not something Microsoft wanted to be facing, considering they are already under scrutiny for their acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
Source: Neowin
Advertisement
The Slack logo looks vaguely familiar. I wonder where they found their inspiration.
I read that, after they forced Teams on everyone, they are now removing features from the free version such as automated transcriptions, which is a wonderful feature for deaf people.
This could probably get them sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Hopefully they get one for Windows 11 as well. Trying to push their horrible 365 products, MSN and Bing throughout the whole OS.
And the beat goes on. It’s in the company’s genetics. Microsoft octopussy. An OS, services which all connect to each other, always, to the full possible extent.
I don’t know your year of birth but if I can find out the day-month and weekday of your birth I’ll be able to have corresponding years that include both. That’s how data collection works. Big corporations operate that way, GAFAM mainly. When I think that some still exclude Microsoft by referring to GAFA rather than to GAFAM I sit back, take a big breath, sigh.
Avoid GAFAM to the limit of your possibilities, needs, requirements.
When you read the Neowin page you can read that the source is politico.
https://www.politico.eu/article/microsoft-european-union-antitrust-video-calls-software-giant/
Why there is no reference to the 22 December 2022 article from Patrick Devaney?
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/12/14/microsoft-settle-eu-teams-antitrust