Microsoft is looking to settle with the European Union (EU) over antitrust concerns about its business practices, according to Reuters.
It is understood that Microsoft is trying to prevent the opening of a formal EU antitrust investigation by working through issues with EU regulators.
The matter stems from a complaint made by Slack in July 2020 to the EU Antitrust Commission, where the company accused Microsoft of “crushing competition” and “illegally abusing” its position within the software market.
Slack claims that Microsoft force installs its Teams platform on user devices and makes it difficult to remove due to the tying of the Teams collaboration product to the market-dominant Office productivity suite.
Slack believes that by allegedly carrying out the above practices, Microsoft breaches European Union laws about fair competition.
The complaint prompted the EU to send out surveys in October 2021 to deem whether bundling Teams into Microsoft Office as a free product has given it an unfair market advantage.
At the time, Reuters claimed the EU had sent out a survey that focused on the years between 2016 and 2021
Last month, Reuters reported that the EU had sent out a fresh round of questionnaires, with sources claiming that it was a sign that the EU is preparing to go ahead with a formal investigation.
In November 2021, around 30 European software firms united to take on Microsoft, again calling the US giant’s business practices anti-competitive.
