Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: EC Executive Vice-President Ribera urges rule of law and EU champions in Fordham remarks, (Sep 23, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Fordham Law School | U.S. Department of Justice
By Justin Marcus Smith, J.D.
Ribera suggested the European Union wants to balance the development of “Single Market champions” that innovate, and compete globally and sustainably, without becoming so powerful that they threaten democratic norms.
In remarks addressed to the 52nd Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy, and Antitrust Economics, European Commission (EC) Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera presented her view that competition law is increasingly important to the democratic fabric. Ribera delivered her remarks on September 19 at Fordham Law School. Fordham hosted the conference. Ribera defended European regulation as a practical antidote to demonstrable market failures. Perhaps most strikingly, Ribera suggested the European Union (EU) wants to develop “Single Market champions” in apparent counterpose to the examples of Google and Apple, while protecting small innovators, citizens, and the transition to a green future.
Balancing power. In Ribera’s observation, people want to avoid excessive or arbitrary power in their workplaces, communities, and economies. Therefore, she noted it is important to ensure, in apparent reference to U.S. tech companies, that “no single company holds disproportionate influence over our choices, our information, or our futures.”
She exhorted the audience to never forget that antitrust enforcement is essentially a movement for justice aimed at creating wealth for people. Whereas, in contrast, she said we presently see a handful of companies concentrating market power in “too many sectors” from food to digital platforms, raising questions about how to avoid monopolization and capture.
Strong stance. Ribera continued that the EC is continuing to take a strong stance in favor of competition and consumer welfare, and ultimately democracy itself, as shown in the recent Google decision. The EC recently fined Google for abusing its dominant position in online advertising and required Google to eliminate its “conflicts of interest within the AdTech [supply] chain.”
Google sale. Ribera acknowledged Europe is not alone, as in the April federal court decision upholding the main claims of a United States Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint about Google’s advertising business. She said the American court reached “essentially the same conclusions we did.”
Accordingly, Ribera urged a “joint outcome.” She said a sale of some part of Google’s AdTech business appeared to be necessary. She warned that could be done the easy way or the hard way: “If Google fails to come up with a viable plan within 60 days, [the EC] will impose an appropriate remedy.”
Market failures. Normatively, Ribera appeared to challenge laissez-faire economics. She proposed that Europe, rather than over-regulating, simply recognizes the practical fact that “markets do not or cannot always self-correct effectively or fairly.” She suggested the digital industry is especially prone to acquiring too much power, thereby entering our lives in ways that are “beyond any neutral regulator.”
DMA. To make markets accountable to the citizenry, Ribera said the EC aims to act quickly to stop dominant companies from stifling of start-ups and innovation. More specifically, she characterized the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the world’s first specific regulation intended to make European digital markets fairer, as a form of democracy in action. She said the DMA recognizes that traditional antitrust instruments sometimes do not keep up with the pace of digital transformation.
Apple action. Ribera continued that the recent EC DMA action prohibiting and fining Apple for blocking app developers from steering users outside the App Store “led to positive results, including for U.S. companies.” For example, Epic Games can now inform users of other offers and payment systems beyond the Apple App Store. She again recognized Europe is not alone insofar as the district court for the Northern District of California granted Epic Games an injunction along similar lines.
Merger guidelines. Ribera continued that merger policy is another cross-border challenge. She said the EC is just now, after a 20-year hiatus, “in the process of modernising our rulebook through modernizing [sic] our Horizontal and Vertical Merger Guidelines.”
EU priorities. She reported that EC public consultation about the modernization prompted a big response. Despite the complexity of this form of democratic exercise, she said the EC has two clear priorities:
(1) Europe wants its own “Single Market champions that operate across borders and beyond national borders.”
(2) Innovation will be central to European competition and productivity.
Despite the potential size implications of champions, the EC “won’t be soft on mergers that only benefit companies or vested interests.” She qualified that real champions win global competitive contests.
Ribera related that business have urged the EC to adopt a more “innovation-friendly” approach, involving less red tape, even if it involves some negative price effects. In any event, Ribera said the upcoming merger guidelines will seek to stop practices jeopardizing small innovators and to reduce growth risk by clearly explaining when the EC will not intervene and by highlighting mergers that promote innovation. The EC will also support start-ups and innovators seeking investment to grow European and global markets.
Sustainability. Ribera began to wrap up her remarks noting that society is demanding not only fair competition in tech but a “sustainable, green future.” Accordingly, in the EU it is now “mainstream” to look at sustainability issues in competition cases. Meaningful transparency means consumers and companies must be able to make informed individual choices in the marketplace. Financial markets can assist in improving transparency by making environmental costs “visible and properly accounted for.”
Ribera continued that efforts to promote “sustainable finance” should be seen as positive steps to stronger competition and economic strength. She cited the Inflation Reduction Act in the US and CISAF (Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework) in the EU as positive examples of state subsidy interventions deployed to address with market failures.
In conclusion, Ribera said Europe is committed to a “clean, just and competitive transition” of the economy such that companies can succeed, grow, and contribute to prosperity, with appropriate limits on their power congruent with democratic values.
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