Microsoft made concessions in EU competition investigation into office software business. Microsoft announced on Thursday that the group’s program packages will be cheaper in Europe from October without teams’ communication service.

Since July, the EU Commission has been investigating in official proceedings whether Microsoft has engaged in unfair competition by integrating teams with other office software into its platforms. Brussels competition authorities were concerned that teams could be given an advantage over other services.

According to a blog entry, in the future corporate customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland will be able to get Microsoft 365 and Office 365 software packages without teams for two euros less per month.

Existing customers can choose to stay with their current contract or upgrade to the cheaper non-Teams version. Interaction of Microsoft software with other communication services should also be improved.

Office communication software, which includes voice and video conferences as well as chats, gained importance with working from home in the Corona epidemic. The trigger for the EU procedure was a complaint filed by rival Slack in the summer of 2020.

Now owned by the company’s software provider, Salesforce, the service sees itself at a disadvantage due to the integration of teams in Office 365 and Microsoft 365.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Microsoft initially offered to forgo the automatic setup of teams for Office customers only. However, the newspaper wrote that Microsoft made this promise only for the European Union, while Brussels competition watchers insisted on a worldwide implementation.

The EU Commission only said in July that Microsoft had not received any proposals that would dispel concerns.