EU Ruling on Microsoft Teams: A Turning Point for Digital Sovereignty

On 12 September 2025, the European Commission accepted a series of commitments from Microsoft aimed at addressing competition concerns surrounding the bundling of Teams with its Office 365 / Microsoft 365 productivity suites. The ruling is a landmark case in Europe’s ongoing mission to ensure fair competition, consumer choice, and digital sovereignty in the age of Big Tech.

At RealTyme, we see this as more than just a regulatory milestone. It validates what we have always believed — that organizations, institutions, and governments deserve choice, sovereignty, and control when it comes to communication and collaboration platforms.

In this article, we’ll unpack the EU decision, explore its implications for businesses and regulators, and show why RealTyme has already built the alternative that the future demands.

What the EU Found: The Problem with Bundling Teams

The EU’s investigation, launched in 2023, was triggered by complaints from Slack (Salesforce) and alfaview, a German videoconferencing company. Both argued that Microsoft was giving Teams an unfair advantage by bundling it into Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365.

When Teams comes pre-installed as part of a broader suite that almost every enterprise already subscribes to, rivals are effectively shut out — not because they lack innovation, but because they can’t compete with “free.”

The Commission concluded that this bundling:

• Reduced customer choice by pushing Teams on businesses who didn’t necessarily want or need it.

• Hindered competition by raising switching costs and lowering visibility of alternatives.

• Created dependency on Microsoft’s ecosystem, reinforcing its dominant position.

Bundling may look convenient at first, but the EU recognized it as a structural barrier to innovation, effectively forcing organizations into an ecosystem they didn’t actively choose.

Microsoft’s Commitments: A Partial Fix

To avoid heavy fines and reputational damage, Microsoft offered, and the EU accepted, legally binding commitments that will reshape how Teams is offered in Europe. These include:

1. Unbundling Office 365 / Microsoft 365 and Teams - Customers will be able to purchase productivity suites without Teams at a lower price.

2. Transparent Pricing - Organizations choosing not to adopt Teams will no longer subsidise a service they don’t want.

3. Improved Interoperability - Microsoft will enable Teams to work more seamlessly with rival apps and collaboration tools.

4. Data Portability - Users will gain easier ways to export or migrate messaging and collaboration data from Teams, enabling switching to alternative

These commitments are legally enforceable, monitored by the Commission, and apply over seven years for availability and price differences, while aspects such as interoperability and data portability are enforced for around ten years. If Microsoft fails to comply, penalties could follow.

While significant, these changes are not the end of the story. They are a minimum response to regulatory pressure. Which raises an important question: What if organizations want more than minimum compliance?

Why This Decision Matters  

For Businesses and Organizations

• Cost clarity: No more paying for tools you don’t use.

• Greater choice: Freedom to adopt collaboration tools that fit better with existing workflows.

• Flexibility: Easier to switch or integrate multiple platforms.

• Strategic independence: The freedom to design your collaboration ecosystem around your mission, not Microsoft’s commercial priorities.

For Competitors

• Fairer competition: Rivals such as Slack, Zoom, or alfaview will have more breathing space.

• Innovation boost: With reduced barriers, differentiation can be based on features and value, not bundling.

• Healthier ecosystems: More diverse players mean faster innovation cycles, benefiting organizations and end-users alike.

For Regulators

• A precedent: The EU is sending a clear signal that bundling dominant products is not acceptable.

• Broader scrutiny: Other platforms and practices may now fall under the same lens.

• Momentum: This ruling adds teeth to the Digital Markets Act and reinforces Europe’s ambition for digital sovereignty.

For Users

• Transparency: Clearer understanding of what is being purchased.

• Sovereignty: More control over tools, data, and digital dependencies.

• Better user experience: With genuine choice, organizations can align tools with workflows instead of adjusting workflows to tools.

The Bigger Picture: Europe’s Digital Sovereignty Agenda

The EU’s decision fits neatly into a wider strategy: promoting digital sovereignty and preventing monopolistic lock-in. The Digital Markets Act (DMA), the Data Act, and other frameworks all aim to:

• Increase interoperability across platforms.

• Protect competition and consumer rights.

• Limit dependency on a few dominant US-based Big Tech providers.

• Encourage European alternatives that prioritize privacy, sovereignty, and compliance.

For Europe, this is not only about fair pricing, but about strategic autonomy in a world where communication platforms are critical infrastructure.

This is not just a European story. Other regions, from the Middle East to Latin America, are also rethinking how they balance digital infrastructure dependency with national security and organizational autonomy.

In fact, we’re already seeing governments in Asia and Africa experimenting with sovereign cloud strategies, seeking platforms that guarantee data residency and compliance from day one.

And this is precisely where RealTyme comes in.

RealTyme: Built on the Principles the EU Now Demands

At RealTyme, we designed our secure communication platform around the very principles the EU is now mandating. Long before regulators intervened, we understood that bundling, vendor lock-in, and opaque pricing do not serve organizations with sensitive missions.

Here’s how RealTyme aligns, and often goes beyond, the commitments Microsoft is now making under pressure:

1. Choice and Modularity

Microsoft will now offer Office without Teams. At RealTyme, we’ve always been modular. You adopt exactly what you need: secure messaging, calls, video, file sharing, without hidden extras.

2. Transparent, Fair Pricing

While Microsoft is reducing costs for unbundled Office, RealTyme has always provided transparent pricing models that reflect actual use, deployment needs, and compliance requirements.

3. Interoperability by Design

Microsoft is being forced to improve interoperability. At RealTyme, integration is standard. We connect seamlessly with identity systems (LDAP, National IDs), directory services, and custom workflows while respecting data sovereignty.

4. Data Portability and Sovereignty

The EU demanded data portability. RealTyme offers that and more. With sovereign deployment options (on-premises, sovereign cloud, or Swiss cloud), your data stays exactly where you want it. You control access, residency, and compliance.

5. Privacy and Security by Default

Unlike platforms built for mass adoption, RealTyme was engineered for sensitive environments. End-to-end encryption, metadata minimization, and quantum-resilient protocols ensure that your communications remain confidential, even against future threats.

Unlike Microsoft, RealTyme didn’t wait for regulators to tell us what to do. We built sovereignty into our DNA.

What This Means for Organizations (Especially in Sensitive Environments)

For organizations making decisions about communication tools, whether governments, NGOs, health, finance, defense, or regulated businesses, the EU’s decision affirms some key strategic considerations:

• Don’t assume “bundled” = “best value”: Sometimes what you get “free” comes with trade-offs (loss of control, or privacy, or choice).

• Audit your needs & risk profile: How much do you need sovereignty, encryption, data‐residency? How important is interoperability or avoiding vendor lock-in?

• Prepare for regulatory pressure: The EU’s action suggests other jurisdictions may follow — so being ahead (selecting a platform that is compliant, sovereign, transparent) is not just good practice, it may be required.

• Evaluate the cost of dependency: long-term vendor lock-in can be more expensive than switching early to sovereign platforms.

Case examples of sectors where RealTyme provides unmatched value:

• Government & Defense: Where sovereignty and national security require local hosting, full control, and uncompromising encryption.

• Healthcare: Where sensitive patient data must remain private, compliant, and accessible only under strict controls.

• Finance: Where communication integrity and compliance audits are mission critical.

• Critical Infrastructure: Where disruptions or leaks can have nationwide consequences.

The Risks of Staying with “Minimum Compliance”

Microsoft’s commitments are a positive step. But let’s be clear: they are a reaction to regulatory pressure, not a reflection of Microsoft’s design philosophy.

For organizations handling classified, confidential, or mission-critical data, relying on a platform that was only reluctantly made compliant comes with risks:

• Reactive, not proactive security: Microsoft’s changes were forced. Will they invest in proactive measures beyond what regulators demand?

• Vendor lock-in remains: Even unbundled, many Microsoft services are designed to work best within Microsoft’s own ecosystem.

• Privacy trade-offs: As an ad-driven and mass-scale provider, Microsoft’s DNA is not built around privacy by design.

• Limited deployment control: Microsoft may allow unbundling, but not sovereign hosting or white labelling.

In contrast, RealTyme was built for organizations that cannot afford such trade-offs.

What Organizations Should Do Now

The EU decision should act as a wake-up call for CIOs, CISOs, and digital transformation leaders. Here are three practical steps:

1. Audit Your Current Collaboration Stack

• Which tools are bundled by default?

• Are you paying for licenses you don’t use?

• Do you have true control over where your data resides?

2. Evaluate Risks and Regulatory Exposure

• If regulators in your region follow the EU’s path, are your current tools compliant?

• What risks do you face if you are locked into a non-sovereign provider?

3. Consider Sovereign Alternatives

• Platforms like RealTyme are designed for sovereignty, compliance, and sensitive missions.

• Transitioning now reduces long-term switching costs and ensures future-proof alignment with regulation.

• Engaging with sovereign platforms today means being ahead of the regulatory curve, not chasing it.

Where RealTyme Expands the Promise

While the EU’s commitments are significant, RealTyme offers some additional advantages that organizations may not get even under Microsoft’s new promises:

• Quantum-resilient encryption — real futureproofing, anticipating threats yet to fully emerge.  

• Full deployment control — white-labelling, national identity system integration, local or sovereign hosting options. Ensuring that institutions can meet both policy and public trust goals.  

• Minimal data exposure & granular access — with RealTyme, metadata minimization, circle-based workspaces, strict access controls, and design for privacy are baked in. No surprises.  

• Swiss neutrality and trust — as a Swiss-based platform, RealTyme offers independence from geopolitical influence, reinforcing sovereignty at its core.

The Road Ahead: Competition, Innovation, and Sovereignty

The EU’s ruling against Microsoft Teams is not an isolated event. It is part of a global rebalancing in the digital world:

• Regulators are getting tougher.

• Organizations are re-evaluating their dependencies.

• Sovereignty, compliance, and security are rising to the top of the agenda.

• The age of bundled Big Tech dominance is ending. The age of sovereign communication platforms is beginning.

For Microsoft, this is a reminder that dominance has limits. For organizations, it is a chance to reclaim control. And for RealTyme, it is confirmation that our mission — to provide sovereign, secure, and private collaboration tools — is not just relevant but urgently needed.

Conclusion: Beyond Compliance, Towards Sovereignty

Microsoft’s commitments accepted by the EU are a step in the right direction: recognizing the importance of choice, reducing unfair bundling, enhancing data portability, and pushing competition.

But for any organization that must uphold sovereignty, strong encryption, privacy, and strict compliance from day one, RealTyme has already built what many will be only starting to demand. The EU’s decision doesn’t change our mission, but it strengthens the case for what we offer.

If you’re evaluating communication tools, now is the time to think beyond just “what’s familiar.”  

Think: control.  

Think: security.  

Think: sovereignty.  

And if you want to explore how RealTyme can help your organization do all of that — let’s talk.

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