Microsoft's Ribera claims that it has complied with European regulations

Teresa Ribera, Vice President of the European Commission, said that Microsoft Chairman Brad Smith told her company to abide by European regulations whether they are in agreement or not.

Ribera, in a recent interview with reporters during which she discussed issues ranging from digital competition and trade to the massive power outage that occurred last week in Spain and Portugal, praised this approach.

She said: "It's more important to say that we will respect the rules and comply with them if we wish to be able to do business in this market, than to just say 'you are targeting me because I am American'."

She added that the Commission has observed both approaches during its meetings with various players.

Microsoft announced last month that it will sell Teams, its video and chat app, separately from Office software worldwide. This comes six months after Microsoft unbundled its two products in Europe to avoid a potential EU antitrust fine.

Slack, owned by Salesforce, complained to the European Commission over Microsoft's tie-in of Teams with Office.

"We're talking about operators who have accumulated a significant amount of power and that about a third their global revenue is produced in Europe," Ribera stated. (Reporting and editing by Inti landauro, Jan Harvey, and Pietro Lombardi)

(source: Reuters)