Big Tech Faces EU Antitrust Weapon After Broadcom Settles Dispute
October 07 2020 - 9:26AM
Dow Jones News
By Valentina Pop
Europe's top competition official said she would make more use
of injunctions, including in pending cases against big technology
companies, after successfully forcing U.S. chip maker Broadcom Inc.
to change its alleged anticompetitive practices.
The European Commission, the bloc's top antitrust watchdog, on
Wednesday said it was closing its probe and accepted Broadcom's
legally binding commitments to refrain from any exclusivity
arrangements for chips used in television set-top boxes and
internet modems over the next seven years.
Broadcom didn't immediately comment on the settlement.
The decision comes a year after EU competition czar Margrethe
Vestager revived so-called interim measures, an injunction that
hadn't been used since 2001, to order Broadcom to suspend the
contested agreements while she was still investigating the
case.
Ms. Vestager said she would make more use of this power as she
investigates other companies for alleged antitrust violations,
including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and
Facebook Inc.
"If you have taken out a tool out of a toolbox and have some
experience in using it, it's more likely that you'll use it again,"
she said.
Ms. Vestager has gained notoriety in recent years for leveling
record multibillion-dollar penalties on Google and Apple. But those
cases started over a decade ago and are still being fought in EU
courts, with plaintiffs alleging that their services are still
being discriminated against in Google searches.
Her reputation suffered a blow in July when the EU's
second-highest court sided with Apple over a EUR13 billion tax
bill, a ruling Ms. Vestager is now challenging in the EU's top
court.
"Effective competition may not always be best achieved by
imposing fines, " Ms. Vestager said Wednesday. "Interim measures
prevent irreparable harm from happening while the commission is
investigating the case," she said, noting that the Broadcom case
was completed in under a year.
Ms. Vestager's stance on big technology companies using their
dominant position to quash competitors was seconded Tuesday by a
Democratic-led report issued by the U.S. House of
Representatives.
"I think it's proof of one of the things I've said a number of
times, that the debates have changed a lot on the other side of the
Atlantic in the time where I have been dealing with competition law
enforcement," Ms. Vestager said, adding that she had sent two
submissions to the House probe. "There is some similarity in the
way we think about this."
Write to Valentina Pop at valentina.pop@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 07, 2020 09:11 ET (13:11 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024