Microsoft is making a major change to how it sells Teams, uncoupling it from its Office suite globally after first doing so in the EU.

Microsoft came under fire in the EU over its practice of bundling Teams as part of Office. Slack filed a complaint with the EU alleging that Microsoft’s bundling gave Teams an unfair advantage and disincentivized customers from using competing alternatives.

After increased regulatory scrutiny, Microsoft agreed to uncouple Teams from Office in the EU, effectively heading off further antitrust action. Microsoft has now decided to make that policy global, according to a post on the company’s site:

Last year Microsoft updated the way Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Teams were licensed in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland. Now we are announcing our plan to extend that approach worldwide.

Globally consistent licensing helps ensure clarity for customers and streamline decision making and negotiations. To that end, we are now updating the way Microsoft 365, Office 365, and Teams are licensed outside of Europe in keeping with the recent changes in the EEA. Starting today, we are introducing 1) a new lineup of commercial Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites that do not include Teams in regions outside the EEA and Switzerland, and 2) a new standalone Teams offering for Enterprise customers in those regions.

As in the EEA and Switzerland, customers with existing subscriptions that include Microsoft Teams will be able to continue using plans they have already chosen.

Microsoft has worked hard to shed the image it once had as a company that abused its monopoly and crushed rivals. While still perfect, the company has responded much faster than Apple or Google to regulators’ concerns and, in at least some cases, made sweeping changes to how it conducts business or licenses its products.

One can’t help but wonder if Apple would be facing the massive DOJ lawsuit about its alleged monopolistic behavior if it had taken a page from Microsoft’s book and been more proactive about addressing regulatory concerns.