In order to escape the pressure of the antitrust proceedings, Microsoft wants to separate teams from the Office suite. This may also affect subscription prices.

In 2020, Slack filed a complaint against Microsoft Teams with the European Commission. The company behind the business chat app believed Teams was unfair competition because Microsoft shipped it in Office subscriptions. Three years later, to avoid a costly fine, Microsoft agrees to take Teams out of the 365 portfolio. This may affect Microsoft 365 pricing.

Surcharge for teams

According to Reuters, Microsoft would add a small surcharge to subscriptions for teams. However, how Microsoft will implement this price change leaves the news outlet in the middle. We see several possibilities for this. The most obvious option is that Microsoft will offer cheaper non-Teams 365 formulas and offer customers the option to add the video conferencing software as a separate product.

However, Microsoft can also look at the prices of subscriptions with teams. So whether that means you have to pay more to keep Teams on your subscription remains to be seen. It’s also not clear what price Microsoft wants to charge for Teams. That should become clearer in the coming weeks.

fees

These are busy times for the Microsoft Legal Department. The German market regulator is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against the entire Microsoft ecosystem. The fact that many Windows users also subscribe to Microsoft 365 for convenience gives the applications an unfair advantage over alternatives. Redmond settled a lawsuit filed by French OHV Cloud against Microsoft’s cloud business with a direct settlement.