Sept. 12 (UPI) -- The European Union has accepted assurance from Microsoft that it will cease forcing its Teams application onto users and allow similar apps a chance to compete.
"Today, the European Commission has accepted commitments from Microsoft addressing its concerns that the distribution of Teams, Microsoft's communication and collaboration product, harmed competition," said EU Director for Information, Technology, Communication and Media Carlota Reyners Fontana in a video statement posted to social media Friday.
Those commitments mean that Microsoft will detangle Teams from its Office 365 and Microsoft 365 suites for business customers, freeing up consumers to obtain productivity apps like Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word minus Teams for a lesser cost.
The promise also long-term licensed Microsoft customers the ability to switch out of suites that contain Teams, to allow competing apps to operate on Microsoft products and permit users to move data out of Teams and into competing apps.
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