By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Microsoft expects to take additional steps to resolve an EU antitrust investigation into its chat and video app Teams which is part of its Office product, even as it seems likely to get EU charges in the case, its President Brad Smith said on Tuesday.
The European Commission launched an investigation into Microsoft’s tying of Office and Teams last year, following a 2020 complaint by Salesforce-owned Slack, a competing workspace messaging app.
Microsoft in April said it would sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally, months after it unbundled the two products in Europe in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine.
Microsoft is ready to do more, Smith said.
“I expect we will take additional steps,” he told reporters after earlier meeting EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in Brussels.
“On Teams, we have done a lot of work, our work isn’t yet done. Microsoft is committed to find a resolution to regulators’ concerns,” Smith said.
He said the company would not be surprised to receive a statement of objections or charge sheet from the EU competition enforcer but this was not an irreversible step in resolving the issue.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)