Microsoft says it will offer its Teams and Office 365 separately for business customers globally, unbundling the two programs and expanding an approach that it introduced in the European Economic Area and Switzerland last year.
The company says Office 365 suites with Teams will no longer be sold to new business subscribers, but will continue to be available for existing customers that opt to continue using the bundled products, even upon renewal.
The moves follow the European Commission’s announcement last year that it was opening a formal investigation into Microsoft’s bundling of the communication and collaboration software into its business software suites. The EU investigation was sparked by a Slack complaint in 2020, prior to Slack’s acquisition by Salesforce.
Unbundling the programs is designed to “ensure clarity for our customers” a Microsoft spokesperson said via email. “Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility when they want to standardize their purchasing across geographies.”
Critics call the move too little, too late.
“By simply extending the changes offered in Europe in August 2023, this announcement pays lip service to fair competition but leaves interoperability and licensing restrictions in place that prevent true customer choice,” said Ryan Triplette, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Software Licensing, in a statement.
The group has called on the FTC to investigate Microsoft’s licensing practices.
