Microsoft facing UK antitrust lawsuit from Slack over Teams 'bundling'

LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - ‌Salesforce and ​its ​workspace messaging app Slack are suing Microsoft at London's High Court over ‌alleged anticompetitive practices relating to its Teams ⁠app.

Slack Technologies LLC and related companies filed the lawsuit ‌on April 23, which ‌a Slack spokesperson said was "because Microsoft's practices harmed competition, using tying and bundling of Teams ​to limit customer choice".

A Microsoft spokesperson said the case lacks merit.

"Slack's lackluster growth, ⁠compared to Zoom and Teams, was based on inferior capabilities when ​COVID-19 hit in 2020, and had nothing to do with Microsoft," the spokesperson ​added.

Slack had in 2020 ‌complained to the European Commission, accusing Microsoft of bundling Teams with its ⁠Office product to gain an unfair advantage over rivals.

The U.S. software giant avoided a potentially hefty ⁠fine by promising reduced prices for Office products excluding Teams ​in an agreement with the European Commission last year.

The filing of the lawsuit came in the same week ‌that London's Competition Appeal Tribunal certified a mass lawsuit alleging Microsoft ‌overcharged British businesses to use Windows Server software ⁠on cloud computing ‌services provided by ​rivals.

Microsoft disputes the allegations made in that case.

(Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Tomasz ‌Janowski)

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