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Microsoft resolved the European Union’s Teams-bundling investigation through legally binding commitments accepted on September 12, 2025—not through a publicly announced antitrust fine or damages settlement. Under an Article 9 commitment decision, Microsoft agreed to offer qualifying Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites without Teams at lower prices, improve interoperability for competing services, and provide data-portability and switching rights for eligible European customers.
The practical result is more choice for organizations comparing Teams with Slack, Zoom, Webex, or other collaboration platforms. It does not mean Teams is free, every customer receives a refund, or rivals automatically receive identical access to Microsoft’s software.
What Microsoft actually settled
The European Commission accepted Microsoft’s final commitments under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. This procedure allows the Commission to make a company’s commitments legally binding when they address the Commission’s preliminary competition concerns.
That distinction matters. The decision was not a conventional final finding that Microsoft had infringed Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It also does not describe a one-time antitrust fine, damages payment, or admission of liability.
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A precise summary is: Microsoft resolved the case through binding commitments accepted by the Commission, rather than through a publicly announced antitrust fine or damages settlement.
Why the EU investigated Teams bundling
The case began with a complaint from Slack on July 14, 2020. The Commission opened formal proceedings on July 27, 2023 and issued a Statement of Objections on June 25, 2024.
The Commission’s preliminary concerns involved Microsoft’s treatment of Teams as part of its broader productivity offering, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and related Microsoft 365 or Office 365 services. The Commission preliminarily considered that Microsoft was dominant in professional productivity software and that customers lacked a meaningful way to purchase the suite without Teams.
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These were preliminary allegations, not the legal conclusion of the commitment decision.
What Microsoft agreed to change
- Teams-free suites: Eligible customers can buy qualifying Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plans without Teams at a lower price.
- Teams-included options: Microsoft made Teams-included enterprise suites available again globally, alongside Teams-free versions.
- Interoperability: Microsoft must provide specified access and integration capabilities for competing collaboration products.
- Data portability and switching: Eligible European customers receive stronger rights to extract Teams data and switch to alternatives.
How much cheaper are Teams-free plans?
Microsoft’s published framework sets minimum monthly price differences between versions with and without Teams. The Commission cited savings of up to €8 per user per month, depending on the suite.
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| Suite or product category | Minimum monthly difference |
|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 E3/E5 and Office 365 E3/E5 | €8 / $8.55 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard/Premium and Office 365 E1 | €3 / $3.21 |
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | €1.50 / $1.60 |
| Microsoft 365 F3 | €1 / $1.07 |
| Teams Enterprise / Teams EEA | Minimum €8 / $8.55 |
| Teams Essentials | Minimum €3 / $3.21 |
These are minimum price-delta figures, not a guarantee that every customer’s invoice will change by exactly those amounts. Enterprise agreements, reseller discounts, currency, taxes, country, product terms, and contract timing can affect the final price. The dollar figures are Microsoft’s published reference amounts and should not be treated as permanent US list prices.
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Microsoft’s licensing FAQ and current plan pages should be checked before renewal or procurement decisions.
Can existing customers remove Teams?
Often, but eligibility depends on the customer’s geography, SKU, contract, purchasing channel, and renewal date.
Microsoft says existing customers with relevant multi-year agreements in the European Economic Area can receive recurring opportunities to switch to an equivalent Teams-free suite at their annual order period for five years. Customers switching under that arrangement retain their previous percentage discount for the remainder of the agreement term.
Existing Microsoft 365 E3/E5 “Original” SKU customers must transition to equivalent Unified SKUs at renewal. Customers with Teams-free suites or standalone Teams arrangements became subject to the new pricing structure at the next renewal after November 1, 2025.
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Is this only an EU change?
The legal protections and specific switching rights are primarily focused on the European Economic Area. However, Microsoft said its commercial response would be broader.
Microsoft announced that, from November 1, 2025, its new packaging and pricing structure would roll out globally. Teams-free suites would remain available worldwide, new customers globally could again buy suites that include Teams, and frontline suites without Teams would continue to be offered globally.
That means the regulatory remedy is geographically specific, while the commercial changes are not simply Europe-only.
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The commitments principally concern professional and enterprise Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites. Do not assume that every Microsoft customer automatically receives the same rights.
Microsoft’s licensing FAQ says the changes do not currently affect consumer, academic, US Government, or nonprofit-specific SKUs. Government entities buying from the commercial price list—including many non-US governments—are treated like commercial customers.
The Commission’s final commitments also did not cover frontline-worker suites, although Microsoft separately announced Teams-free frontline offerings worldwide.
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What interoperability changes are required?
The commitments require Microsoft to improve specified interoperability with services including Word, Outlook, and OneDrive, along with successor products where applicable.
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- Embed Office Web Applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, for viewing, editing, collaboration, presentations, and live experiences.
- Integrate prominently with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
- Use relevant add-in and marketplace access.
- Access data through APIs involving services such as Microsoft Entra ID, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive.
This is not the same as feature parity. Slack, Zoom, Webex, or another rival does not automatically receive every Teams capability or an identical user experience. Buyers should verify what a vendor’s integration actually supports.
Can customers export Teams data?
The commitments require Microsoft to enable eligible European customers to extract Teams messaging data for use in an alternative software-as-a-service unified communications and collaboration product.
Microsoft says it provides Teams migration APIs and a data-export tool for small businesses and end users at no additional cost. Its Teams data migration documentation should be reviewed before planning a move.
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Exporting data is not automatically the same as completing a one-click, lossless migration. A serious assessment should account for:
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- Chats and channel messages.
- Files stored in SharePoint or OneDrive.
- Meeting recordings and transcripts.
- Retention policies, eDiscovery data, legal holds, reactions, mentions, and metadata.
- Identity mapping between Microsoft Entra ID and the destination platform.
- Whether the destination vendor can import Microsoft’s export format.
What the decision means for Slack, Zoom, Webex, and Google
The remedy reduces one advantage Teams had: it was commonly available alongside a productivity suite that customers were already buying. A customer can now compare the cost of a Teams-free Microsoft 365 suite plus another collaboration service more directly.
Interoperability and portability may also reduce switching barriers. But this does not guarantee that rivals will gain market share. Microsoft 365 may remain attractive because Teams connects with Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, Entra ID, security tools, compliance systems, and existing employee workflows.
Organizations may also choose a mixed approach—for example, retaining Teams for some employees or use cases while deploying another platform for specific teams or external collaboration.
What buyers should check before changing licenses
- Identify the exact SKU: Confirm whether the plan is commercial, enterprise, business, frontline, academic, nonprofit, consumer, or government.
- Check geography: Determine whether the organization qualifies for EEA-specific protections.
- Review the contract: Note whether the purchase is direct, through an Enterprise Agreement, Cloud Solution Provider, reseller, or web-direct subscription.
- Confirm timing: Review the renewal date and any annual-order window for switching.
- Measure Teams usage: Include chat, channels, meetings, telephony, webinars, recordings, apps, bots, and external collaboration.
- Map dependencies: Check Outlook calendars, SharePoint, OneDrive, Power Platform, Defender, Purview, identity, and compliance workflows.
- Model migration: Include messages, files, recordings, transcripts, retention records, and legal holds.
- Verify integrations: Ask the alternative vendor which Microsoft integrations are live, supported, and included in the selected plan.
- Calculate total cost: Compare license savings with migration, training, administration, support, compliance, and duplicate-platform costs.
Timeline
- July 14, 2020: Slack filed the original complaint.
- July 27, 2023: The Commission opened formal proceedings.
- October 1, 2023: Microsoft began selling Teams-free versions of relevant suites in the EEA and Switzerland.
- April 2024: Microsoft extended its unbundled enterprise approach to new customers elsewhere.
- June 25, 2024: The Commission issued its Statement of Objections.
- June 10, 2025: alfaview withdrew its complaint.
- July 21, 2025: Microsoft submitted final commitments.
- July 31, 2025: Slack withdrew its complaint.
- September 12, 2025: The Commission adopted the Article 9 commitment decision.
- November 1, 2025: Microsoft’s announced global packaging and pricing changes took effect.
- December 18, 2025: The decision was published in the Official Journal.
How long do the commitments last?
Most commitments last seven years from the effective date. The interoperability and data-portability commitments last ten years. Microsoft must appoint a monitoring trustee, and the decision allows fast-track arbitration for disputes and periodic penalty payments if Microsoft fails to comply.
The decision creates enforceable obligations, but it does not guarantee that every implementation detail will work identically across every country, reseller, SKU, or competing platform.
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What this does not mean
- Teams is not free.
- There is no general refund entitlement for past Microsoft 365 purchases.
- Every Microsoft customer is not covered in the same way.
- Microsoft is not required to make Teams and rival products identical.
- Data export is not automatically a complete migration.
- Customers are not required to abandon Teams.
- The resolution does not guarantee a market-share reversal for Slack, Zoom, Webex, or Google.
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