In preparation for an investigation into the American tech giant, German rival alfaview filed a second EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft on Thursday regarding the integration of the video software Teams into its Office product.

Since 2020, when Slack, a workspace messaging service owned by Salesforce, complained about the integration of Teams with Office, the US software business has been on the radar of the EU competition enforcer.

Alfaview, a 500-person company with headquarters in Karlsruhe, South-Western Germany, said it had submitted a similar complaint to the European Commission.

Teams gain a distinct competitive advantage by bundling both items, which is unjustified by performance and which rivals cannot duplicate, it claimed.

According to alfaview, this has a major and long-lasting effect on market rivalry for communication software.

“Tying Teams with the other applications in the Microsoft 365 suite creates a multipolar distribution advantage for the U.S. group,” its managing director and founder, Niko Fostiropoulos, said in a statement.

Regarding alfaview’s lawsuit, Microsoft declined to comment. The Commission acknowledged receiving the complaint and promised to review it in accordance with its usual operating procedures.

Teams was a free addition by Microsoft to Office 365 in 2017, and it will eventually replace Skype for Business.

After Microsoft’s remedies failed, the Commission is prepared to open an investigation into the action, according to persons familiar with the situation who spoke to Reuters earlier this month.

Microsoft has proposed to lower the price of its Office suite without Teams, but authorities want a bigger drop, the individuals said. Microsoft has been fined a total of 2.2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) over the past ten years for practises that violated EU competition laws.

Although an informal investigation against Microsoft has been launched, a formal investigation has not.

“We continue to engage cooperatively with the Commission in its investigation and are open to pragmatic solutions that address its concerns and serve customers well,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.

Alfaview sought the EU antitrust watchdog to launch an official probe, claiming that the remedies provided to the Commission by its American rival were insufficient.

(Adapted from Reuters.com)