![]() ![]() The complaint and resulting probe into Microsoft’s business is the latest development in a long-running feud between the two companies. It is about the integration of OneDrive and Microsoft Teams in Windows 11. The accusation is that Microsoft has a dominant market position and is exploiting it. Slack originally complained of Teams, Microsoft’s own workplace platform, and how it is bundled with the market-dominant Office 365 productivity suite illegally forced its software on users. German Stuttgart-based software company Nextcloud has filed a competition complaint against Microsoft with the German Federal Cartel Office. Microsoft is currently the subject of an EU probe into its alleged anti-competitive practices, first brought to the Bloc’s attention more than a year ago by workplace collaboration company Slack. “Together with the other members of the coalition, we are asking the antitrust authorities in Europe to enforce a level playing field, giving customers a free choice and to give competition a fair chance.” “This kind of behaviour is bad for the consumer, for the market and, of course, for local businesses in the EU,” he added. “Copy an innovators’ product, bundle it with your own dominant product and kill their business, then stop innovating. “This is quite similar to what Microsoft did when it killed competition in the browser market, stopping nearly all browser innovation for over a decade,” said Frank Karlitschek, CEO and founder of Nextcloud. The coalition said Microsoft has grown its market share to 66% of the EU market in the last few years while smaller vendors have seen their shares shrink by as much as 26%. November 29, Brussels A coalition of EU software and cloud businesses joined Nextcloud GmbH in respect of their formal complaint to the European Commission about Microsoft’s anti-competitive behavior in respect of its OneDrive (cloud) offering. The companies claim the practice is pushing consumers to register for the services and hand their data over to Microsoft, stifling consumer choice and genuine market competition. The tech firms driving the complaint are against Microsoft’s “monopolistic” practice of bundling the likes of OneDrive, Teams, and other services with Windows 10 and Windows 11. ![]()
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