WORK Slack Technologies Inc

By Sam Schechner 

Business-messaging app Slack has filed an antitrust complaint against Microsoft Corp. in the European Union, adding a big name to a series of tech firms under scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic for allegedly abusing their dominance, and echoing the Windows-maker's competition battles more than a decade ago.

The complaint, filed Wednesday to the European Commission, the EU's top competition regulator, accuses Microsoft of trying to snuff out competition in its push into workplace collaboration tools by tying its Teams software to its widely used Office productivity suite.

Slack Technologies Inc., which supplies its messaging app as well as a hub for other business-collaboration apps, alleges that Microsoft forces companies to install Teams, blocks its removal and makes certain types of interoperability impossible. The company is asking the EU to force Microsoft to sell Teams as a stand-alone product, rather than bundling it with Office.

A spokeswoman for Microsoft didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokeswoman for the European Commission said the regulator has received Slack's complaint against Microsoft and "will assess it under our standard procedures." In the past such complaints have at times -- but not always -- led to formal investigations.

Wednesday's complaint is the latest of several complaints and open investigations in the EU and U.S. accusing large technology companies of abusing their alleged dominance. Frequently at issue is the question of whether companies that operate big internet platforms for other companies, including Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Amazon.com Inc., have abused that power to give a preference for their own products.

The EU last month opened formal probes into Apple's alleged abuse of the dominance of its App Store, including one that was based on a 2019 complaint from Spotify Technology SA.

At the same time, scrutiny of large tech companies is heating up in the U.S. The Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and Congress are all investigating large technology companies over potential antitrust matters.

Microsoft has aggressively pushed Teams, with some rivals saying it has used sharp-elbowed tactics such as bundling its software to do so, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

The market for workplace collaboration software like Slack and Teams has become particularly hard-fought during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced tens of millions of people to work from home. Other companies fighting for the market include Google, Facebook and Zoom Video Communications Inc.

Slack says it has been discussing its gripes about Microsoft with regulators in the U.S. and elsewhere for some time. Its decision to file a complaint first in the EU rather than the U.S., where both it and Microsoft are based, stems in part from the EU's aggressive pursuit of antitrust cases against U.S. companies.

Another factor the company cited: The EU has found that distribution of a product to a dominant offering can violate competition law -- a precedent established in part by a case involving Microsoft.

While Microsoft has lately been less of a focus of competition investigations than other tech companies, it was once firmly in the crosshairs of both the U.S. and EU. In the 1990s, the U.S. government sued Microsoft on antitrust grounds for allegedly using the dominance of Windows to stifle competition in the burgeoning browser market. The two sides ultimately settled.

Similar bundling complaints arose in the EU in the 2000s, regarding Microsoft's bundling of its in-house media player with the Windows operating system.

The EU fined Microsoft a total of EUR2.2 billion ($2.5 billion) in the EU between 2004 and 2013. In addition, it was forced to release a special version of Windows without its media player, though few copies ever sold.

Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2020 10:39 ET (14:39 GMT)

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