Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been accused by EU antitrust regulators of illegally bundling its chat and video app, Teams, with its Office product, thereby breaching antitrust rules. Last year, Microsoft attempted to unbundle Teams from its Office suite globally to address EU antitrust concerns.
However, the EU antitrust regulator stated that these changes were “insufficient to address its concerns” and that more changes to Microsoft’s conduct are necessary to restore competition. In response, the tech giant has stated that it will address the commission’s additional concerns.
EU’s Concerns About MSFT’s Teams
The European Union Commission is concerned that since 2019, Microsoft has bundled Teams with its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications like Office. The Commission noted that this may have given Microsoft an unfair distribution advantage as it did not give its customers a choice “whether or not to acquire access to Teams when they subscribe to their SaaS productivity applications.”
As a result, this limited customer choice and interoperability with competitors, potentially stifling innovation and harming customers in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Is Microsoft a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Analysts remain bullish about MSFT stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 34 Buys and one Hold. Over the past year, MSFT has increased by more than 35%, and the average MSFT price target of $500.71 implies an upside potential of 11.8% from current levels.
