Microsoft makes Office-Teams offer to avert EU antitrust fine

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Microsoft has offered to make its Office product without Teams cheaper than when sold with Teams, EU antitrust regulators said on Friday, which could spare the company a big fine and ease tensions with the United States.

The European Commission said it would seek feedback from rivals and customers before deciding whether to accept the offer. Reuters was the first to report the proposal earlier this week.

If accepted, it would end a long-running case triggered by a 2020 complaint from Salesforce-owned Slack, which could have resulted in a massive antitrust fine for the U.S. tech giant. Germany's alfaview also complained.

Microsoft's Vice President for European Government Affairs Nanna-Louise Linde said in a blogpost the proposal was a clear and complete resolution to concerns raised by rivals and would give Europeans more choice.

Its offer would allow Europeans to buy Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams for less than corresponding suites that include Teams, the EU competition enforcer said.

Microsoft said the maximum price differential between the two suites would be 8 euros ($9).

The proposal would also allow rivals to inter-operate with certain Microsoft products and services for specific functionalities, embed Office web applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint in their own products, and integrate their products in Microsoft's core productivity applications.

Customers in Europe would be able to extract their Teams messaging data for use in competing solutions. The pricing offer would be valid for seven years and interoperability for 10 years.

Microsoft, which has accrued 2.2 billion euros in EU antitrust fines in past years, said it would align the options and pricing for its suites and Teams service globally if the EU regulator accepts its offer.

"We are hopeful that following the market test, the European Commission will conclude that the proposed commitments resolve its concerns and in the following months adopt a final decision closing its investigation," Microsoft's Linde said.

Interested parties have a month to provide feedback. Salesforce said it would scrutinise the offer.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to levy tariffs against countries that penalise U.S. companies.

($1 = 0.8933 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Barbara Lewis)