Salesforce and its workplace communication platform Slack have initiated legal proceedings against Microsoft in London’s High Court, alleging the technology company engaged in unfair competitive practices with its Teams application.
The lawsuit was filed on April 23 by Slack Technologies LLC and associated entities. A company representative explained the legal action stemmed from Microsoft’s business approach, stating the practices “harmed competition, using tying and bundling of Teams to limit customer choice.”
Microsoft has not yet provided a response to requests for comment regarding the litigation.
This legal challenge follows a 2020 complaint Slack submitted to the European Commission, where the company accused Microsoft of packaging Teams alongside its Office suite to create an unfair competitive edge over other companies in the market.
The technology corporation from the United States managed to sidestep what could have been substantial financial penalties by agreeing to offer lower-priced Office packages without Teams included, as part of a settlement reached with the European Commission in the previous year.
The timing of this lawsuit coincides with another legal development in London, where the Competition Appeal Tribunal approved a collective action lawsuit during the same week. That separate case alleges Microsoft imposed excessive charges on British companies using Windows Server software through competing cloud computing platforms.
Microsoft has denied the claims presented in that additional case.
