Microsoft is coming under pressure from the EU with cheaper 365 subscriptions without Teams

Microsoft will begin unbundling Teams from Microsoft 365 subscriptions on October 1. Nothing will change for existing customers, but for new customers there will be options with and without Teams in the office software package.

For subscriptions for large companies the option disappears to take Microsoft 365 and Office 365 with Teams and Teams becomes an add-on of 5 euros per month per user. The standard price is deducted by 2 euros per month per user. For small companies and frontline subscriptions, there will be an option with and without Teams. At Frontline this saves 0.50 euros per month per user, for small companies 1 euro per month.

Microsoft is also working on better interoperability with other software, says the company. For example, APIs are being created to connect to Office programs with third-party software. The web versions of Office software will also work with other providers. Microsoft does not say what this will look like in practice.

The changes come about under pressure from the European Union, and only apply in the EU and Switzerland. The EU opened an investigation into Microsoft last month for bundling Teams. The investigation was started following a complaint that Slack, now part of Salesforce, filed in 2020. Slack states that Microsoft sees that app as a competitor and is trying to counter it by bundling Teams with the market-dominant Office.