On April 23, 2026, Salesforce filed swimsuit in opposition to Microsoft at London’s Excessive Court docket via its workspace messaging platform, Slack. The declare alleges that Microsoft engaged in anticompetitive conduct by tying and bundling Groups with its Microsoft 365 suite, thereby locking out rivals and distorting the market.
A Slack spokesperson described the motivation plainly: “Microsoft’s practices harmed competitors, utilizing tying and bundling of Groups to restrict buyer alternative.”
Microsoft rejected the declare. An organization spokesperson stated the case “lacks advantage,” including: “Slack’s lackluster development, in comparison with Zoom and Groups, was primarily based on inferior capabilities when COVID-19 hit in 2020, and had nothing to do with Microsoft.”
Each positions are well-rehearsed. This isn’t the primary time these arguments have been aired. In 2020, Slack filed a proper grievance with the European Fee, making basically the identical allegation: that Microsoft had used the distribution attain of its dominant Workplace suite to impose Groups on prospects who had by no means formally chosen it.
That grievance triggered 5 years of regulatory scrutiny, ultimately resulting in a September 2025 settlement by which Microsoft agreed to widen the worth hole between Groups-included and Groups-excluded licensing tiers. For enterprise plans comparable to Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, the mandated differential was set at $8.55 (€8.00) per consumer per thirty days. The EU’s personal evaluation was pointed. Microsoft had been illegally bundling Groups with its Workplace suite since April 2019.
The settlement was introduced as a decision. What adopted difficult that image. On November 1, 2025, the identical month the EU phrases got here into impact, Microsoft reintroduced Groups-bundled packages globally at their authentic value factors. Groups-excluded pricing was concurrently diminished, with Workplace 365 E3 with out Groups falling 44 p.c to $14.45 per consumer per thirty days.
This was technically compliant with the EU’s necessities. In follow, the worldwide default for many enterprise prospects exterior the EEA resets to Groups included. Slack’s determination to file a UK declare barely two months after that settlement displays a transparent view of how significant these concessions had been.
The submitting additionally lands alongside two different important UK authorized developments. In the identical week, London’s Competitors Attraction Tribunal licensed a separate class motion involving near 60,000 British companies, which alleges Microsoft overcharged enterprises for Home windows Server licenses when working workloads on rival cloud platforms, together with AWS, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud, whereas providing extra favorable phrases by itself Azure platform. Potential damages are estimated at as much as £2.1 billion ($2.8 billion).
The UK’s Competitors and Markets Authority has additionally launched a proper investigation into Microsoft’s cloud licensing practices extra broadly. Microsoft disputes each units of allegations.
What Market Context Surrounds the Slack Declare
It’s the story that simply retains enduring. The context behind Slack’s persistence is price understanding. Microsoft Groups holds roughly 37 p.c of the worldwide crew collaboration market, with round 320 million month-to-month lively customers, in line with the final official depend. Slack holds roughly 13 p.c market share, with roughly 65 million month-to-month customers, regardless of having created a lot of the enterprise messaging class that Groups later entered.
The enterprise collaboration market is at present valued at round $66 billion and projected to develop considerably over the following decade. These will not be small stakes, which explains why Salesforce is ready to pursue this via what is going to seemingly be a prolonged Excessive Court docket course of.
What Tech Consumers Ought to Know In regards to the Microsoft Groups Bundling Saga
For many organizations, this lawsuit may have no fast operational impression. Court docket proceedings of this sort sometimes take years, and any structural modifications to how Microsoft costs or packages Groups are more likely to be gradual and jurisdiction-specific.
That stated, there are sensible questions price asking earlier than a Microsoft Enterprise Settlement renewal. The mandated value hole between Groups-included and Groups-excluded enterprise licensing is now publicly documented. A 5,000-seat group on Microsoft 365 E3 is paying a premium of roughly $513,000 yearly for Groups, whether or not or not it’s the platform of alternative. Procurement groups with upcoming renewals are more and more able to request Groups-excluded pricing, significantly given the EU precedent, and to conduct a proper aggressive analysis earlier than committing.
The broader sample of regulatory scrutiny throughout Microsoft’s cloud, AI, and safety product strains can also be price monitoring as a sign of vendor dependency threat. This isn’t a motive for alarm, however an affordable enter into any long-term platform technique dialog.
