On 12 September 2025, the Commission adopted a decision relating to a proceeding under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 54 of the EEA agreement. In accordance with the provisions of Article 30 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, the Commission herewith publishes the names of the parties and the main content of the decision, including any penalties imposed, having regard to the legitimate interest of undertakings in the protection of their business secrets.

1.   Introduction

The Decision is a commitment decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 (‘Commitment Decision’), relating to proceedings under Article 102 TFEU and Article 54 of the EEA Agreement. The European Commission has been investigating Microsoft's practices regarding its software product Teams, specifically the tying of Teams with Microsoft’s cloud-based software-as-a-service (‘SaaS’) productivity applications, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, for professional use (‘Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications’), which Microsoft distributes in several larger suites comprising more products (i.e. Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites). The Commission expressed its preliminary concerns in its Statement of Objections (‘SO’) that this practice may be an abuse of Microsoft's dominant position in the market. To address these concerns, Microsoft has offered commitments, which are assessed in the Commitment Decision.

2.   Procedure

The case against Microsoft originated from a complaint lodged by Slack Technologies Ltd. (US. now owned by Salesforce, Inc.) on 14 July 2020, under Article 7 of Regulation 1/2003. The Commission received a second complaint from alfaview GmbH (DE) on 20 July 2023.

On 27 July 2023, the Commission opened proceedings in Case AT.40721 – Microsoft Teams. On 25 June 2024, the Commission initiated proceedings in case AT.40873 – Microsoft Teams II. On the same day, the Commission adopted an SO regarding both cases and outlining the Commission's preliminary concerns. Microsoft replied to the SO on 9 October 2024.

On 28 April 2025, Microsoft submitted commitments (the ‘Initial Commitments’) to the Commission to meet the preliminary concerns expressed by the SO. On 16 May 2025, the Commission published a notice pursuant to Article 27(4) of Regulation 1/2003, inviting interested third parties to give their observations on the Initial Commitments. Based on these observations, Microsoft submitted an amended final proposal for commitments on 21 July 2025 (‘Final Commitments’).

On 10 June 2025, alfaview GmbH withdrew its complaint. Slack Technologies, Inc. withdrew its complaint on 31 July 2025.

On 8 September 2025 the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions was consulted. On 8 September the Hearing Officer issued his final report.

3.   Facts

The Commitment Decision concerns certain Microsoft practices in relation to the distribution of Teams with Microsoft’s productivity applications for professional use at least as of 2019 and interoperability limitations of Teams’ rivals with specific Microsoft business application software.

Microsoft has traditionally offered an entire ecosystem of business application software and related products, aiming to provide a one-stop-shop to organisations for all their software needs. With the shift to cloud computing and SaaS in recent years which facilitated market entry of software suppliers, customers are increasingly looking for flexibility and the ability to combine different applications from various providers (so called ‘best-of-breed’ model).

Microsoft has responded to this trend by expanding and reinforcing its suite offering, including by adding in 2017 Teams to most of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for businesses and enterprises which include its Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications (‘Microsoft Suites’) and a version of Teams in all Microsoft Suites in 2019. Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications include the core applications Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Google is Microsoft’s only credible rival in this segment. Teams is Microsoft’s SaaS unified communication and collaboration product for professional use (‘SaaS UCC’). It combines communication services, such as voice- and videoconferencing, messaging, and screen sharing, with conversational workspaces based on channel-based persistent chat, file-sharing and the integration of other applications. Teams’ rivals include Cisco Webex, Zoom and Slack.

After the opening of proceedings, Microsoft introduced unilateral changes in the way it distributes Teams, including offering Microsoft Suites without Teams, first in the EEA (2023) and then globally (2024).

4.   Legal assessment

The SO constitutes the Commission’s preliminary legal assessment within the meaning of Article 9(1) of Regulation 1/2003. The SO preliminarily found that Microsoft anti-competitively tied Teams to its dominant Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications.

In terms of relevant markets, the SO preliminarily found that there are distinct markets for SaaS productivity applications for professional use, on the one hand, and for SaaS UCC, on the other hand. The market for SaaS UCC is potentially further segmented into SaaS virtual meetings for professional use and SaaS conversational workspaces for professional use. Furthermore, the SO found that the relevant geographic markets for SaaS productivity applications for professional use and SaaS UCC are worldwide.

The SO preliminarily found that at least since 2019, tying Teams to the Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications by including it in the Microsoft Suites, constitutes an abuse of Microsoft’s dominant position because:

Furthermore, the SO preliminarily found that the effects of the tie were reinforced by interoperability limitations between the Microsoft SaaS Productivity Applications and Teams’ competitors. The SO also preliminarily concluded that the licensing changes unilaterally implemented by Microsoft in 2023 and in 2024 did not remove the coercion, and that the effects of the tie persisted at the time of the SO.

The Commitment Decision considers that the Final Commitments are effective and proportionate to address the competition concerns identified in the case. The key elements of the Final Commitments are:

In case Microsoft does not comply with the Final Commitments, the Decision provides for the possibility of periodic penalty payments.

(1)  Moreover, while suites for frontline workers are not covered by the Final Commitments this does not undermine their effectiveness considering Microsoft’s announcements relating to the global distribution of frontline worker suites without Teams with an associated price delta.

(2)  Microsoft intends to globally align their suites offers and pricing.