The relationship between Slack and Microsoft Teams has not been good for a long time. They are two tools that compete in a market (communication in the workplace) to which the Redmond platform was late but it managed to conquer.
As early as 2018, Teams outperformed Slack on its own turf. The latest episode in their relationship comes with a Slack complaint to the European authorities for the integration of Teams with Microsoft Office and the investigation in this regard by the European Commission.
Now, the antitrust bodies in the European Union have a duty to understand to what extent Microsoft’s power in our routines, with all the long list of tools for the use of our PC can go against the regulations common to avoid monopolistic practices.
Following the Slack complaint, the Commission questions whether the products of this company give it access to data that could increase its power in the markets where it operates, in an irregular way. The process is, for now, in a “preliminary investigation” and consists of questioning other companies that have platforms that compete with this tool.
Teams rivals quiz
The EU has now responded with a preliminary investigation into the workplace chat market and, for this process, has sent a questionnaire to Microsoft rivals such as Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace, Facebook, and Cisco asking them about the impact of Microsoft including Teams with Office, as Reuters has explained.
The period of interest of the research must cover the period from 2016 to 2021 and the questions asked are related to analyzing whether packaged products give companies access to data that can increase your market power in both markets and, at the same time, make it harder for rivals to compete, especially rivals who only have one product.
The European Commission has also consulted on other issues, such as the barriers companies face to enter or expand in the markets for workplace applications; the importance of protecting user data; information about your customers who have switched to Microsoft Teams or your Office suite; the percentage of revenue they lost as a result, or whether COVID-19 had driven demand for workplace apps, among other issues.
Questionnaire it does not mean that a full investigation will be carried out, But it is a sign that the European Commission is considering doing so.
An integration with Office that is controversial
Slack has complained that the integration between Teams and Office is illegal and considers it fair that both software programs are presented independently. They also claimed that Teams was pre-installed, difficult to uninstall, and that Microsoft refused to provide information that would allow rival products to work with Teams and Office.
As Windows Central recalls, Teams has 250 million users and Microsoft has integrated this platform as a central part of Windows 11 through the Chat application. Rivals like Slack argue that the tech giant is, in essence, making Teams too anchored in the PC lifestyle and this reduces opportunities for other similar applications to gain visibility.
Slack’s complaint dates from the summer of 2020 and came at a time when Teams managed to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis to give Slack the ‘sorpasso’. Slack believes that Microsoft is doing the same thing against them as it was with the “browser wars.”