Even breaking up Microsoft Teams will not help. It is rumored that the EU will file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft

The European Union announced this week that it has designated Booking.com, a hotel reservation website, as the seventh "gatekeeper" of the EU market, joining the ranks of Alphabet (Google's parent company), Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and ByteDance. As a designated gatekeeper, Booking.com will be subject to strict EU regulations.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the EU is preparing to file formal antitrust charges against Microsoft, primarily due to its Microsoft Teams collaboration software. This issue dates back to July 2020, The Slack platform, which had been acquired by CRM giant Salesforce at the time, complained in the EU about Microsoft's monopoly, using Microsoft Office software to bundle Teams, and pre-installing Teams through Windows systems.

The EU focused on Microsoft in subsequent investigations. By April 2023, Microsoft was considering stripping Teams from Office in exchange for the EU's settlement. Later, Microsoft announced that Teams would be sold separately and would no longer be included in Office.

But even improvements at this time cannot resolve the concerns of EU regulators. An insider revealed to the Financial Times that the EU has concluded its investigation and plans to formally announce antitrust charges against Microsoft.

The EU's concerns center on Microsoft's perceived failure to promote market fairness, while competitors worry that Microsoft will continue to improve Teams' compatibility and user experience on Windows, including offering system integration features.

Another issue is that Teams still lacks data migration functionality, making it difficult for existing Teams users to switch to rival software like Slack.

The EU is expected to make an announcement in the coming weeks, but Microsoft will likely try to negotiate a settlement before then to avoid being charged.