Microsoft on Monday, announced its decision to globally sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product, six months after unbundling the two products in Europe to avoid a potential EU antitrust penalty.
The move comes amid an ongoing investigation by the European Commission into Microsoft’s bundling of Office and Teams, prompted by a complaint filed in 2020 by Slack, a competing workspace messaging app owned by Salesforce.
Teams, originally integrated into Office 365 in 2017 at no additional cost, gained popularity, particularly during the pandemic, for its video conferencing capabilities after replacing Skype for Business.
However, competitors argued that bundling these products provided Microsoft with an unfair advantage. Responding to feedback and regulatory scrutiny, Microsoft began selling Teams and Office separately in the EU and Switzerland last year.
A Microsoft spokesperson stated, “To ensure clarity for our customers, we are extending the steps we took last year to unbundle Teams from M365 and O365 in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to customers globally.” This move aims to provide multinational companies with more purchasing flexibility across different regions.
In addition to introducing new commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland, Microsoft is also launching a standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in those regions.
Starting April 1, customers can choose to continue with their current licensing agreements, renew, update, or switch to the new offerings.
For new commercial customers, prices for Office without Teams will range from $7.75 to $54.75 depending on the product, while Teams Standalone will cost $5.25. These prices may vary by country and currency, with Microsoft not disclosing prices for existing bundled products.
However, Microsoft’s unbundling efforts may not fully alleviate concerns raised by rivals, who criticize the fees and the compatibility of their messaging services with Office Web Applications.
The EU is expected to send antitrust charges to Microsoft in the coming months. If found guilty of antitrust violations, Microsoft could face fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover, adding to the 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in EU antitrust fines it has incurred over the past decade for similar practices.
