Brussels – The regulators of the European Union will seek public comments on the proposed changes of Microsoft for teams, indicating that the US company may be reaching the end of a long -term antimonopoopoopoopoopoopoopoly aimed at its messaging application and videoconference.
Microsoft had previously offered some modifications, including Challenge equipment From his office software suite in an attempt to avoid antimonopoly probe shortly after it It was opened by the EU two years ago.
But these proposals do not satisfy the European Commission, the main competition of the 27 -nations block, which accused of Microsoft Last year of potentially abusive behavior.
The commission said Friday that it will now seek comments on new commitments that Microsoft has done to resolve competition concerns. That includes making the Office 365 and Microsoft 365 software packages available with a discount without equipment, and allow customers to change between packages without equipment. The company also promises to facilitate that the rival software works with equipment and that users move their equipment data to competitive products.
The commission said in a press release that “invites all interested parties to present their views” in Microsoft’s proposals. If everyone is satisfied, they would become legally binding.
The Redmond-based company, Wash., Has “hopes” that the commission “in the following months will take a final decision to close his investigation,” Microsoft said in a Microsoft blog post in charge of European government affairs, Nanna-Louise Linde.
Microsoft’s commitments would be in force for up to 10 years, the commission said. The company could incur fines worth up to 10% of its annual global income, which could tense in tens of billions of euros, if you do not honor them.
Team research dates back to 2020, when Slack Technologies, which makes the popular messaging software of the workplace, presented a complaint.
Slack, owned by the Salesforce business software manufacturer, claimed that Microsoft was abusing its market domain to eliminate competition, in violation of EU laws, by illegally combining equipment with its office suite, which includes words, Excel and Outlook.
The president of Salesforce, Sabastian Niles, said that the last announcement “states that Microsoft’s anti -competitive practices with the teams have harmed competition and require a binding, enforceable and effective remedy. We will carefully examine the proposed commitments of Microsoft.”
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Business writer Kelvin Chan contributed from London.
