EU’s Vestager mulls tougher action on tech giants
The antitrust commissioner signals that she is willing to go beyond fines
For years Brussels has been accused of being too slow to take antitrust actions against US tech giants. Critics say that by the time a fine is imposed, the likes of Google or Facebook have already killed competition. The fines end up seeming a mere cost of doing business for large online platforms.
But the mood music is changing. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition supremo, is under pressure to be more aggressive, and has signalled she is willing to go beyond fines as she seeks to restore competition.
“We will be much more aware as to what [is] needed in order for competition to come back in a market that has been plagued with illegal behaviour by one or more companies,” she said last autumn after being confirmed as competition commissioner for a second term.
Last week, Ms Vestager got a reminder from the finance ministers of France, Germany, Poland and Italy to get on with a review of competition rules and promote European answers to digital and industrial threats coming from the US and China. The letter urged Ms Vestager to go after giant digital platforms “without unnecessary delay, in order to avoid irreversible distortions in competition on digital markets”.
There are plenty of suggestions around for how she can take tougher action. A high-level expert report commissioned by Ms Vestager and published last year suggested tech giants could be held to higher standards of proof. She has said that companies such as Google should take on extra responsibilities because they have become “de facto regulators” in their markets. Ms Vestager is also under pressure to stop alleged anti-competitive behaviour even if a probe is still ongoing.
In Google’s case, for instance, rivals to the search engine want her to implement interim measures on Google Local and Google Travel, even though an investigation is not imminent. Google also faces a complaint from a rival over favouring its own services when it comes to searching holiday rentals.
It has rejected such claims and has said it provides “relevant and trusted information from a diverse range of sources”. This week it is going to the EU court in Luxembourg to challenge a €2.4bn fine imposed for abusing its dominance and favouring its own shopping services.
European states are also taking action. Berlin is pushing through new laws that will give its antitrust watchdog more powers to intervene against “abusive practices for big market-dominating digital companies”. The UK competition regulator wants to pursue new cases against the US tech giants post-Brexit. In the US, a broad coalition of attorneys-general has also launched an unprecedented investigation into big tech practices.
“There is a huge global shift from regulators,” said Barry Lynn, who runs the Open Markets Institute, a liberal think-tank that has advised presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. “They are saying they are not going to put up with [anti-competitive behaviour] any more.”