The European Commission has opened a consultation period to gather comments on commitments offered by Microsoft in response to antitrust concerns regarding its Teams communication tool. The Commission's investigation, initiated in July 2023, found that Microsoft may be abusing its dominant position by tying Teams to its widely-used productivity suites, Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

Microsoft's proposed commitments include offering versions of its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites without Teams at a lower price, allowing customers to switch to these versions, and enhancing interoperability for Teams' competitors. Additionally, Microsoft has committed to enabling customers to extract their data from Teams to facilitate the use of competing solutions.

The Commission's preliminary findings indicated that Microsoft's conduct restricted competition in the unified communication and collaboration market, giving Teams an unfair advantage. Despite some changes made by Microsoft since the investigation began, the Commission deemed these insufficient to resolve its concerns.

The commitments, if accepted, would be binding for seven years, with certain obligations lasting ten years. A monitoring trustee will oversee the implementation of these commitments and mediate disputes. Interested parties have one month to provide their feedback on the proposed commitments, which could lead to a legally binding decision by the Commission.