The EU’s top official who imposed billions of dollars in fines on US tech giants is set to be forced out of his job. The Financial Times reported on Friday..
During her decade as Europe’s top antitrust enforcer, former Danish deputy prime minister Margrethe Vestager stirred outrage on this side of the Atlantic by extorting billions of yen from some of America’s most successful companies.
“Vestager has stepped down. Nobody owes her anything,” a former Danish minister told the Financial Times after her Left Liberal Party lost its position in the country’s governing coalition.
Britain’s Financial Times reported that her influence has begun to wane in recent years due to a series of lawsuits over antitrust convictions, and that France has blocked her candidacy for a new post to head the European Investment Bank, the EU’s financial arm.
During his tenure, the 56-year-old has fined Google more than $10 billion, including a $4 billion fine in 2018 that was the largest in EU antitrust history.
She and the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, accused the search giant of illegally using Android mobile technology to “consolidate its dominant position” over rivals.
The new rules, known as the Digital Markets Act, will give Vestager the power to impose fines of up to 10% of a company’s global turnover if it is found to be behaving illegally.
She used the law in March to impose a $2 billion fine on Silicon Valley giant Apple for thwarting competition in music streaming.
For repeat offenders, that percentage rises to up to 20% and in extreme cases can lead to the company being dissolved.
The companies she attacks can appeal but face a lengthy legal battle before they can have their reputations cleared in EU courts.
Her rulings even drew the ire of former President Donald Trump in 2018, who told EU officials that “Vestager really hates the United States” after she clashed with a series of major US companies.
In a 2014 speech, the company’s CEO, Tim Cook, also called attempts to collect $13 billion in tax revenue from a special tax treaty with Ireland “complete political nonsense.”
A final decision on the long-running legal battle is expected from European judges in the coming months.
In the United States, the Department of Justice recently filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the company engaged in anti-competitive conduct to ensure the iPhone’s dominance in the smartphone market.
Other US companies ordered to pay billions of dollars by unelected EU bureaucrats include Facebook parent Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and chipmaker Intel.
The top official at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, or commissioner, can earn a tax-free salary of at least $310,000 a year, or $26,000 a month.
They also enjoy lavish perks such as an expatriate bonus of 16 percent on top of their salary and a chauffeured limousine for getting around the Belgian capital.
Each member state of the 27-nation club can nominate someone for these cushy posts, which are then effectively approved by all EU member state governments and members of the European Parliament.
Tensions with Brussels flared again earlier this week after a fellow EU commissioner, Frenchman Thierry Breton, issued a bizarre order to X owner Elon Musk ahead of his interview with President Donald Trump.
Breton, who is reportedly seeking Vestager’s job, warned that live streaming “can have a detrimental impact on civil debate and public safety” because of the “risk of spreading potentially harmful content”.
In response, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang said the European Union should “mind its own business, not interfere in our elections.”
“Let me be clear: the European Union is an enemy of free speech and has no power whatsoever to dictate how we conduct our election campaigns,” he added.
