A Microsoft will pass to sell Teams separately do Office, according to Reuters, 6 months after an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft was announced.
The European Commission is investigating the merger of Teams with Office after a complaint in 2020 from Slack. Teams, being added to Office 365 for free in 2017, became popular during the pandemic as an alternative for video conferencing and video calling.
For new commercial customers, Office prices without the Teams program can range from $7,75 to $54,75. Teams, on its own, costs $5,25, but the price may vary depending on the country and currency, according to Reuters.
Despite this decision, at a time when Brussels' scrutiny of North American technology giants is increasing, the company may not escape accusations of anti-competitive practices in Europe, according to sources cited by the news agency.
Teams' rivals, however, claim that combining Teams with Office 365 gives it an unfair advantage. Quoted by Reuters, a Microsoft spokesperson indicated that, “To be clearer to our customers, we will build on the steps we took last year to sell Teams and Office 365 separately in the European Economic Area and Switzerland to all our customers globally".
