Regulatory pressure from the European Union has driven Microsoft to separate some of its services. The tech giant will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from Office 365, the bundle that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, according to an exclusive report from Reuters.
Microsoft is acting in response to mounting concerns about potential abuses of market power. In 2020, Slack filed a complaint alleging that including Teams for free alongside other Office products gave Microsoft an unfair advantage over rivals.
Since then, regulators have scrutinized this case as a potential antitrust issue. Acknowledging the risk of competition violations, Microsoft already began separating the two products in the European Union and Switzerland, selling them separately since August of the previous year. The company now plans to implement the same split globally to give customers greater clarity and flexibility, explaining that the change is intended to improve user choice.
Starting today, businesses using these office productivity services can maintain their current licensing agreement, update it, or modify it to align with the new offering. Microsoft has not publicly disclosed pricing details. Reuters reports that the monthly Teams price is expected to be around 5.25 dollars, though figures may vary by country.
With this move, Microsoft aims to avoid a possible penalty that could reach as high as 10 percent of annual global revenue in the worst case. Over the last decade, the company has faced hundreds of millions in fines for antitrust violations, but the split of Office 365 and Teams could still fall short of addressing all regulatory concerns.
Reuters coverage notes that the decision follows a long-running EU antitrust investigation and reflects a broader push to ensure fair competition and transparent product offerings for enterprise customers. The practical effect is that organizations can choose to license Office 365 and Teams together or separately, depending on their specific needs and regional pricing. The move underscores how competition authorities influence product strategy and pricing models in major software ecosystems, and it signals ongoing oversight in the sector by regulatory bodies beyond Europe as markets evolve.
As the market adapts, customers are encouraged to review their contract terms and assess whether separating the services better fits their usage patterns, security requirements, and budget planning. The shift also invites enterprise buyers to re-evaluate deployment strategies, licensing tiers, and support expectations in light of the new, more modular arrangement. The broader implications touch on how cloud software suites are packaged and priced in a competitive, increasingly multi-vendor environment.