German company Alfaview goes to EC against Microsoft over Teams app
German video conferencing services provider Alfaview has filed a complaint with EU antitrust regulators, saying that Microsoft‘s integration of its workplace chat and video app Teams into its Office product gives it an unfair advantage.
Earlier this month, there were reports that Microsoft would likely face an antitrust investigation from the EU over its practices of its video-conferencing and messaging platform Teams.
Microsoft reportedly offered to cut the price of its Office software without Teams. However, the European Commission reportedly wanted a deeper price cut than Microsoft offered.
What Alfaview complaint says
“Tying Teams with the other applications in the Microsoft 365 suite creates a multipolar distribution advantage for the U.S. group,” Alfaview managing director and founder Niko Fostiropoulos said in a statement obtained by news agency Reuters.
Microsoft vs Salesforce
The complaint filed by Alfaview, based in Karlsruhe in south-western Germany, is similar to the one filed by Salesforce-owned workspace messaging app Slack to the European Commission. In the year 2020, Microsoft came under the European Commission’s scanner. The 27-nation European bloc opened an investigation after Teams’ competitor, Slack, complained about unfair practices.
“Microsoft has illegally tied its Teams product into its market-dominant Office productivity suite, force installing it for millions, blocking its removal, and hiding the true cost to enterprise customers,” Slack said in the statement.
Slack alleged that Microsoft is using its market power to offer services at very low, or even zero, prices while preventing rival services from competing with their own offerings. They further claimed that Microsoft is using its control over the market to limit the ability of rival services to offer competing services and products.
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