MSFT - Slack Lodges Competition Complaint Against Microsoft in the EU
Slack Technologies (NYSE: WORK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) appear headed for a showdown. The San Francisco-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) company has gone before the European Commission to file a competition complaint against the software giant.
Slack alleges that Microsoft acted anticompetitively in bundling Microsoft Teams, a product that competes against Slack, into its Office productivity suite. According to the complaint, Microsoft has forced Office users to install Teams and does not allow for its removal.
"We're confident that we win on the merits of our product, but we can't ignore illegal behavior that deprives customers of access to the tools and solutions they want," said Jonathan Prince, Vice President of Communications and Policy at Slack. "Slack threatens Microsoft's hold on business email, the cornerstone of Office, which means Slack threatens Microsoft's lock on enterprise software."