After escaping EU scrutiny for almost 10 years, the European Commission charged Microsoft with antitrust violations on Tuesday that could result in a fine of 10% of Microsoft’s global turnover. According to the EU’s competition enforcer, Microsoft has breached EU antitrust legislation since 2019 by bundling its Teams chat and video app with its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites. “Microsoft may be giving its own communication product Teams an undue advantage over competitors, by tying it to its popular productivity suites for businesses,” EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

Microsoft started selling Teams separately from its Office products in the EU in August 2023, a month after Brussels opened an antitrust investigation in response to a complaint from U.S. workplace messaging service Slack. “Having unbundled Teams and taken initial interoperability steps, we appreciate the additional clarity provided today and will work to find solutions to address the Commission‘s remaining concerns,” Microsoft vice chair and president Brad Smith said in a statement sent to Law.com International.