The Slack app logo. - Omar Marques / SOPA Images / Sipa / SIPA

The company Slack lodged a complaint against Microsoft on Wednesday with the European Commission, Le Figaro reports . The pioneer in the collaborative messaging market accuses the American giant of unfair competition with “Teams”, the professional collaborative messaging that Microsoft offers to all Office 365 suite customers.

Currently, 12 million people around the world use messaging, recalls the daily. That's six times less than the number of people signing into Microsoft Teams. Microsoft's tool made a spectacular leap during containment. Offered with the Office 365 office suite, messaging has grown from 44 to 75 million users between March and April, reports the daily.

Microsoft's dominant position

Slack believes that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position and violating European Union competition law. According to the pioneer of collaborative messaging, Microsoft is forcing the installation of Teams "for millions of users, blocking its removal and hiding the real cost to businesses." Slack asks "the EU to be a neutral arbiter, to examine the facts and to apply the law," says David Schellhase, a lawyer for the company. The firm wants Microsoft to separate Slack from its office suite and for the tool to be sold separately.

Microsoft is not of the same opinion. “The market has adopted Teams in record proportions while Slack suffered from the lack of video conferencing functionality,” a scathing spokesperson for the American firm responded. The European Commission will examine Slack's request and may decide whether or not to initiate proceedings.

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  • High Tech
  • Justice
  • Messaging
  • Competition
  • Microsoft