"The Commission considers that there are no competition concerns in this growing market where numerous players, including Google, are present," the European Commission, the EU's antitrust agency, said in a statement today, referring to competition concerns for consumers, who make up the bulk of Skype's customers.

The commission also dismissed concerns that the deal would stifle competition in the enterprise communication market.

"The investigation confirmed that Skype has a limited market presence for these products and does not compete directly with Microsoft's enterprise communication product Lync, which is used mostly by large enterprises," the commission added.

of Skype last May, saying then that it would pay $8.5 billion to the investment group that acquired a majority interest in the Internet telephony company from eBay in 2009.

"We're committed to optimizing Skype for the TV, with Xbox and Kinect, for the Windows Phone, and the Windows PC," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a May 10 news conference that unveiled the deal. "At the same time, we want to extend the reach of Skype by connecting Skype users with users of our Outlook products, our Lync enterprise unified communications product, Xbox LIVE, and other opportunities like Messenger and Hotmail."