In an address at the American Enterprise Institute of Washington on Monday 18 September, the European Commissioner for Competition, Margrethe Vestager, justified recent actions.
Vestager began her speech by praising the benefits of competition today. “Competition is the motor that drives businesses to do better for consumers. To cut prices. To offer more choice. To produce innovative products”, she said. These positive effects of competition therefore, she argued, justify the rules of EU law against cartels, abuse of dominant position and state aid.
The Danish Commissioner went on to illustrate her argument around several key themes, using the examples of sanctions imposed and measures taken by the Commission against American multinationals in recent months. In order to protect consumers' choices, the Commission placed conditions on Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn, on 6 December 2016 (see EUROPE 11684), she explained. It was, moreover, with the aim of making pesticide prices affordable to farmers that a decision was made on 22 August of this year to open an in-depth investigation in the framework of the potential merger between Bayer and Monsanto (see EUROPE 11845), she added.
Vestager then turned her attention to the record fine of more than €2.4 billion handed down to Google on 27 June of this year (see EUROPE 11817), against which the American giant has lodged an appeal with the General Court of the European Union (see EUROPE 11859). The fact that Google gave top weighting to its own price comparison tool would have been harmful to innovation, because “when companies can't lose, they have no reason to do better”, the Commissioner stressed.
Finally, she stressed the benefits of cooperation in competition matters and said that she was open to dialogue and exchanges, particularly with the authorities of the United States, in order to step up consumer protection. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)