Unbundling Teams from Office has apparently failed to impress EU regulators.

Brussels is set to issue new antitrust charges against Microsoft over concerns that the software giant is undermining rivals to its videoconferencing app Teams.

According to three people with knowledge of the move, the European Commission is pressing ahead with a formal charge sheet against the world’s most valuable listed tech company over concerns it is restricting competition in the sector.

Rivals are concerned that Microsoft will make Teams run more compatibly than rival apps with its own software. Another concern is the lack of data portability, which makes it difficult for existing Teams users to switch to alternatives.

The tech company has also faced complaints from European cloud computing providers that are concerned that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in the sector to force users to buy its products and squashing competition from smaller start-ups in Europe.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.eeEnglish
    28·
    2 months ago

    Is this another case of companies use Teams just because it’s already bundled, therefore it’s “good enough”?

    • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
      171·
      2 months ago

      No, they also use it because it integrates with the rest of the Office products. That makes it more appealing than other products like Zoom.

        • sanpo@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          No, it really doesn’t.

          In competitors’ apps you can still integrate it with 3rd party services.

          Teams keeps failing at the most basic features of a chat/calling app.

    • NightAuthor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      It has some use cases for the ecosystem. But it sucks so bad, give me slack, he’ll id take discord over teams, and I hate discord.

  • HeyLow@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    19·
    2 months ago

    Teams does a lot of things right, it was designed to replace Skype business and in that aspect they have definitely made something better and easier to interact with. That being said it’s still a garbage chat app, and I would never use it outside of work.

    • LethalSmack@lemmy.worldEnglish
      72·
      2 months ago

      Works well? In relation to what? Carrier pigeons? Did you forget the /S ?

      The only thing I’ve seen it do well is share recorded videos almost immediately.

      It doesn’t even send messages as you’d expect. It’ll show sent on your side but the other person never gets it

      Someone calls and it rings, but the answer button has a 50% chance of not being there so you can’t actually join unless it’s a group call and then you can after it rings for 30 seconds and you don’t even know who called unless they ping you saying they’re calling

      Sharing your screen takes a few tries occasionally and sometimes requires you to rejoin the call

      Notifications? What notifications. They work so rarely it’s become a habit to manually check every few minutes

      And it opens docs in teams!? Who wants that hot garbage

      And the freezing! It regularly freezes for 20 seconds when doing anything in it

      I’d gladly take Skype over the garbage that teams is

      And if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s apparently such trash that it triggers me when someone has anything nice to say about teams. Sorry 😅

      • mx_smith@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        Don’t even try and format code with markdown, now you have to make a post with a title.

        • NightAuthor@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          2 months ago

          Yep, no one likes the “post” style inside of the team space… so we chat inside of group DMs. It’s so fucking stupid

      • ramirezmike@programming.devEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        how often do you use teams? And do you usually have network issues? I have pretty stable Internet and don’t run into any of these issues but I could see the occurring if teams doesn’t have a stable connection.

        Teams opening files in teams is super annoying though.

        • LethalSmack@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          I use it 5 days a week for work and don’t have connectivity problems.

          These issues are company wide and are not unique to me. I would switch isp providers if that would solve the issue. It’s bad enough that if you want a new computer you just talk to tech support about the issues and they’ll send you a new one since they can’t fix it (not that the new laptops work any better with teams)

          • ramirezmike@programming.devEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            do you mostly communicate with people in your company or do you talk with external people too?

            Don’t get me wrong, I know teams has issues, I have my own list of complaints, I’m just surprised how different your complaints are.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              2 months ago

              Same thing here, reading people’s complaints and nothing applies to my experience chatting with over a hundred colleagues everyday…

            • LethalSmack@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              I only communicate with internal employees, so we’re all in the same network with company issues laptops. I even tried the app on my phone for a while and that wasn’t any better so I ditched it

              I’m honestly surprised anyone has had a good experience with Teams

    • DrCake@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      This time it’s the EU, so let’s see if they can learn from the US failing

  • ano_ba_to@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Teams started out okay. But the recent update made it worse. The microphone constantly disconnects now. Earlier today I lost sound completely just when I was being asked to talk. And the sound starts to get choppy during screen shares. I rarely had these issues with Webex and Zoom. So it’s not even more compatible with their own software. EU doesn’t have anything to worry about. /s

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    According to three people with knowledge of the move, the European Commission is pressing ahead with a formal charge sheet against the world’s most valuable listed tech company over concerns it is restricting competition in the sector.

    Microsoft last month offered concessions as it sought to avoid regulatory action, including extending a plan to unbundle Teams from other software such as Office, not just in Europe but across the world.

    The EU then issued a 561 million euro fine against Microsoft for failure to comply with a decision over the bundling of the Internet Explorer browser with its Windows operating system.

    The company declined to comment but referred to an earlier statement that said it would “continue to engage with the commission, listen to concerns in the marketplace, and remain open to exploring pragmatic solutions that benefit both customers and developers in Europe.”

    Microsoft is also part of a handful of tech companies, including Google and Meta, caught as “gatekeepers” under the new Digital Markets Act, meaning it has special responsibilities when trading in Europe.

    The tech company has also faced complaints from European cloud computing providers that are concerned that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in the sector to force users to buy its products and squashing competition from smaller start-ups in Europe.

    The original article contains 507 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 58%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!