Update (October 2026): the European Commission closed this investigation in September 2025 by accepting legally binding commitments from Microsoft, rather than imposing a fine. Details are in the update at the end of this article. The original April 2024 report follows.
Software giant Microsoft announced the sale of its app Microsoft Teams, used for chat and video connections, separately from its Office products across the globe. The American company announced this on Monday, just a few months after it segregated two of its products in Europe to avoid a potential European Union antitrust penalty.
Notably, the EU is probing Microsoft’s connection between Office and Teams after a rival workplace communication platform, Slack, filed a complaint in 2020.
Microsoft Teams was added to Office 365 in 2017 and has been free for users since then. It had become significantly popular after the need arose for a video conferencing app during the pandemic. The app’s competitors, however, have said that the bundling of Teams with Office is unfair to the competition. Due to the accusations, Microsoft had already segregated Office and Teams in the EU and Switzerland in August last year.
Reuters reported a spokesperson from the company saying,
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.
Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardise their purchasing across geographies,
With this implemented on April 1, 2024, users can either continue with their current license plans, which will include Office without Teams or choose to update or change the offer.
Also Read – The US Department Of Justice Sues Apple In Illegal Monopoly Case
At the time of the announcement in April 2024, Microsoft Office without Teams was priced between $7.75 and $54.75 per user per month, with a standalone Teams licence at $5.25. Prices have changed since, so check Microsoft’s current pricing.
Update: how the EU case ended
In April 2024, it was not yet clear whether unbundling would be enough to avoid an EU antitrust penalty. On 12 September 2025, the European Commission announced that it had accepted Microsoft’s commitments and made them legally binding, which closed the investigation that began after Slack’s 2020 complaint. Under the commitments, Microsoft:
- offers versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams at a lower price;
- lets customers with long-term licences switch to suites without Teams;
- provides interoperability for key features between rival collaboration tools and some Microsoft products; and
- lets customers export their data from Teams to use rival services.
Most of the commitments apply for seven years, and the interoperability and data-portability commitments for ten years.
