In an attempt to revert the EU antitrust fine, Microsoft has now announced that it will unbundle Teams from its Office product. The proposed modifications have been introduced after the European Commission initiated a probe into Microsoft's linking of Office and Teams, prompted by a complaint from Slack and German company 'Alfaview'

In a blog post, Nanna-Louise Linde, the Vice President for European Government Affairs at Microsoft, announced the changes and hoped it would address the European Commission's two major antitrust concerns-

• It aims to offer customers a choice to purchase a business suite without Teams at a lower price compared to those that include Teams.
• It aims to enhance interoperability between Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites and other communication and collaboration solutions offered by competitors.

Microsoft's core enterprise customers in Europe can switch to a version of Office that does not include Teams at a reduced price. Meanwhile, new enterprise customers can purchase Teams separately. The changes are slated to take effect in both the European Union and Switzerland starting 1st October.

Additional support will also be instituted to assist customers and independent software vendors in the process of extracting data from Microsoft Teams for use in other applications.