Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC Competition Commissioner discusses values underpinning competition policy, (Oct 14, 2015)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

Fair and open markets establish a good environment for business in Europe where companies can generate wealth, create jobs, and invest in the future, Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner in charge of competition policy, stated in a keynote address before the Centre for European Policy Studies Corporate Breakfast in Brussels, Belgium on October 13.

In her prepared remarks, entitled “The values of competition policy,” Vestager noted that the politics of competition enforcement can be viewed from three angles. First, competition policy is based on political values and principles. Second, competition enforcement relates to wider political priorities and informs regulatory action taken to implement such priorities. However, competition enforcement in individual cases is not politicized.

Antitrust. One of the pillars of the European Union (EU) is the Single Market, Vestager stated. When the foundations of a united Europe were being laid, the need to protect consumers and honest businesses from anticompetitive practices of rivals was seen. This is where EU competition law plays a central role. Competition policy is at the core of the process of European integration and there would be no genuine integration without a Single Market. The Single Market has been and still is a powerful engine of European integration in the economic sphere. The first goal of the European Commission (EC) is to preserve good competitive conditions in the markets, which translates into lower prices, better quality, and wide consumer choice.

Broader strategy. Competition policy can help reach the objectives of the EC. Vestager noted that the energy strategy of the EC is an example of how competition enforcement is related to wider political priorities. There is a need to tear down the technical and regulatory barriers that keep Europe’s energy markets fragmented. An EU-wide energy market must continue to be open and level and only when energy markets work well can operators compete to provide consumers the best prices and services. The role of the EC is to ensure the government subsidies do not distort the market.

According to Vestager, there is a need for fair and independent decision-making in individual competition cases. As an example, there are 35 mobile network operators at group or company level in Europe. In the past few years, there have been a number of mergers. One proposed joint venture was between the Danish operations of two Scandinavian telecom operators—Sweden’s TeliaSonera and the Norwegian Telenor. On September 11, the companies decided to abandon the transaction, although the EC was close to prohibiting the merger on the grounds that the remedies offered by the parties were insufficient to address the agency’s competition concerns. The merger would have created the largest mobile network operator in Denmark and would have resulted in a highly concentrated market structure.

In Vestager’s view, competition enforcement follows its own principles and rules. The agency must be impartial, be blind to the nationality of the companies under investigation, and be impeccable on the facts, process, and law. The EC’s decisions can be challenged by the parties and by third parties, which contributes to independence and fairness.

The investigations and decisions of the EC are based exclusively on legal and economic analysis, jurisprudence of the Court, and relevant facts of the case. Although Vestager noted that she listens to everyone because antitrust enforcement does not “happen in a vacuum,” not all the views of commentators, politicians, and business representatives are relevant to the assessment and decisions of the Commission. Those views must have foundation in facts and law. The Commission’s impartiality is “simply non-negotiable: because the legitimacy, credibility, and impact of its actions depend on it, Vestager concluded.

News: Antitrust