The business messaging service Slack has filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding alleged distortions of competition by Microsoft.
The latter company automatically bundles its Teams program, mainly used for video meetings, with the widely used office suite Office 365.
Slack believes Microsoft is pushing its Teams uninvited to millions of customers who already use Microsoft Office.
That is still a dominant software package for word processors, presentations and business email. That would be a violation of European competition rules by Microsoft, Slack argues.
Slack is also in talks with authorities about Microsoft’s behaviour in the United States, the news service said. The company does not exclude that complaints will be filed in more countries.
In addition to video conferencing software, Microsoft Teams includes chat services and tools that allow colleagues to collaborate remotely.
Slack offers the same kind of package of services. Because the corona pandemic forced people worldwide to work from home, such services have boomed in recent weeks.
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