It is anticipated that Microsoft will sidestep a substantial antitrust penalty imposed by the EU concerning accusations of unlawfully bundling its video - conferencing software, Teams. The EU has shown a favorable reaction to Microsoft's proposed settlement and is in the process of evaluating whether to accept Microsoft's pledge to decouple Teams from the Office suite. This is because, during market testing, no significant opposition emerged.

The draft proposal recommends that Teams be marketed independently of Office 365 and Microsoft 365. Additionally, it suggests lowering the prices of suites that do not include Teams, enhancing compatibility with rival software, and potentially revising the timeline for implementation.

This move to separate Teams from the Office suite is a result of antitrust pressure from the EU. The pressure was triggered by a complaint filed by Slack in 2020, prompting the EU to initiate an investigation in 2023. Initially, Microsoft carried out the separation in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Subsequently, it announced a global split.