After months of being forced to sell Microsoft Teams separately from its Office productivity suite in Europe, Microsoft is now taking this unbundling global. The move comes after prolonged regulatory pressure and a years-long antitrust complaint from rival Slack Technologies.

The saga began in July 2023 when the European Commission opened an antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s bundling practices. This probe was prompted by a complaint filed by Slack in 2020, alleging Microsoft was leveraging its dominant Office suite to quash competition in the workplace collaboration app market.

Slack argued that by bundling Teams with Office at no additional cost, Microsoft was using its entrenched productivity software to muscle out rivals like Slack and give Teams an unfair advantage. The inclusion of Teams made Microsoft’s bundle incredibly attractive to businesses already using Office.

In an effort to appease regulators, Microsoft announced in August 2023 that it would decouple Teams from its Microsoft 365 subscriptions for commercial customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland starting in October.

Microsoft characterized this as a “proactive” step to address competition concerns, though the European Commission’s investigation remained ongoing with potential fines still looming. The company also pledged to allow deeper third-party integrations with Office apps.

Now, Microsoft is extending that unbundling worldwide. As of now, new commercial customers will need to purchase a separate Teams subscription on top of an Office Suite license.

“To ensure clarity for our customers, we are extending the steps…to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 to customers globally,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Reuters. “Doing so also addresses feedback from the European Commission by providing multinational companies more flexibility.”

For new enterprise subscribers, adding Teams will cost an additional $5.25 per user per month on top of an Office 365 license. Existing enterprise customers can keep their current bundled pricing.

In the business and frontline worker segments, customers will choose between a Teams-included or Teams-excluded Microsoft 365 offering at differing price points. For example, Microsoft 365 Business Standard without Teams is $10.25 per user monthly versus $12.50 with Teams bundled.

The unbundling appears a clear win for collaboration rivals like Slack and video conferencing giants such as Zoom. Despite being early movers, they struggled to compete against Microsoft’s bundled productivity behemoth.

With customers now paying separately for Teams, alternatives have a more level playing field to woo users with their own feature sets and pricing models. The move could also lead to deeper multi-vendor integrations across productivity platforms.

While the unbundling appeases some regulatory demands, Microsoft still faces ongoing EU scrutiny and potential penalties. Competitors like Slack may also push for further measures.