New subscription structure for Microsoft 365 in Europe
Today I wanted to pick up a Microsoft 365 E3 trial license to work out a post about Microsoft Entra Global Secure Access.
As usual I was searching for Microsoft 365 E3 within the Marketplace from the Microsoft 365 admin center. All I found here are these so called Microsoft 365 E3 EEA (no Teams) licenses but no licenses as in past just named Microsoft 365 E3.
A quick web search revealed that Microsoft had to made some changes to the way they license Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Microsoft Teams in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.
New subscription structure for Microsoft 365 in Europe
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/microsoft365-teams-eeaMicrosoft announces changes to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 to address European competition concerns
https://blogs.microsoft.com/eupolicy/2023/08/31/european-competition-teams-office-microsoft-365/July 27, 2023
WashingtonCNN — European officials are investigating whether Microsoft’s practice of bundling its Teams software with Office 365 is anticompetitive, the European Commission said Thursday.
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/27/tech/microsoft-teams-antitrust-investigation/index.html
In a nutshell, Microsoft had to exclude Microsoft Teams from these suites because the European Commission announced on 27 July 2023 that it had opened a formal investigation regarding Microsoft’s bundling of Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites for business customers.
They are designed to address two concerns that are central to the Commission’s investigation: (1) that customers should be able to choose a business suite without Teams at a price less than those with Teams included; and (2) that Microsoft should do more to make interoperability easier between rival communication and collaboration solutions and Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites.
These changes will impact Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites for business customers in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
Beginning October 1, 2023, Microsoft will unbundle Teams from their Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites in the EEA and Switzerland.
Teams will still be available for new enterprise customers to buy standalone and separately at a list price of €5 per month or €60 per year.
Existing enterprise customers who already have a suite with Teams can choose to stay with their current productivity suite or to move to a without-Teams suite.
Source: https://blogs.microsoft.com/eupolicy/2023/08/31/european-competition-teams-office-microsoft-365/
Links
New subscription structure for Microsoft 365 in Europe
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/licensing/news/microsoft365-teams-eeaMicrosoft announces changes to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 to address European competition concerns
https://blogs.microsoft.com/eupolicy/2023/08/31/european-competition-teams-office-microsoft-365/Microsoft under European antitrust investigation over Teams
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/27/tech/microsoft-teams-antitrust-investigation/index.html
