Microsoft faces $6 billion fine

Famous technology giant Microsoft has been trapped by the European Union for a while. The company is accused of gaining unfair profits by combining the Teams application with the world’s most famous office application, Microsoft Office. A $6 billion fine is on the horizon for Microsoft…

With a similar accusation in recent years Google The European Commission, which has put its front in great difficulty, has now gone after Microsoft. The Commission claims that the in-house communication and collaboration platform Teams is offered with office packages, resulting in unfair gain.

Slack is among those who want Microsoft to be punished

As you know, Microsoft’s new generation office application, Office 365, can be purchased as a package for individuals or companies. In both cases, the Office 365 package you receive includes the company’s famous communication application, Teams.

Slack, one of the rival platforms of Teams and naturally Microsoft, claims that Microsoft has violated competition rules with this application. According to rival companies, Microsoft prevents the free choice of its own applications and the company is expected to receive a serious penalty for this reason.

European Commission, Microsoft It evaluated these serious complaints and took a clear stance. After its preliminary investigations, the commission sent a formal notice of objection to the company and requested their defense.

What will happen at this stage?

There appear to be two paths for Microsoft in the coming period. Since the company has already denied the allegations, it has to file and submit a defense. If they choose not to defend, or if their defense is rejected by the Commission, a disaster scenario awaits the company.

It is said that the commission, which takes a very strict stance in such cases, may fine Microsoft up to 10% of its annual turnover. Considering that Microsoft’s turnover last year was 62 billion dollars, a huge penalty of 6.2 billion dollars may be at the door for the company.

So what do you think about this investigation launched against Microsoft? Do you think the inclusion of Teams in office packages creates unfair competition? Don’t forget to share your opinions with us in the comments section.