The European Commission is on the warpath, drafting up a formal charge sheet because it thinks Voles hogging the market. Microsoft tried to sweet-talk them last month, saying it would let Teams fly solo from their other software worldwide, not just in Europe.

But the EU did not buy it. They are still worried Microsoft's not playing fair. The competition's getting antsy too, fretting that Teams will play nicer with Microsoft's own gear than their apps do. Plus, they are miffed about how tricky it is to take your data and run to another app.

This whole drama has been brewing since 2020, when Slack, now part of Salesforce, moaned about Teams. If the EU goes through with these charges, it'll be the end of a cosy little ceasefire that's been going on since 2013. Back then, the EU fined Microsoft a whopping €561 million for being a bit too clingy with Internet Explorer and Windows.

Word on the street is that Microsoft might still try to dodge the bullet with some last-ditch sweeteners, or the EU might just back off or bin the charges.

If Microsoft gets caught out, they could cough up to 10 per cent of their global dough. They're keeping schtum but have said before that they're up for a chinwag with the commission to sort things out for everyone in Europe.

The commission's lips are sealed, too.

Vole is in the spotlight because of its mega-bucks deal with OpenAI, the ChatGPT lot. The EU is checking to see if that is legitimate.

Microsoft is in the same boat as Google and Meta, tagged as big shots under the new Digital Markets Act, which means it must be extra careful when trading in Europe.

It has European cloud providers on its case, accusing them of muscling in and squashing the little guys in the cloud business.