Germany, France spur EU for competition law overhaul

[BRUSSELS] The EU's biggest powers have urged the European Commission to accelerate reform of an anti-trust law to better fight what they see as unfair competition from US tech giants and China.

In a letter, Germany, France, Italy and Poland asked EU competition supremo Margrethe Vestager to deliver a plan to overhaul competition rules "in the forthcoming weeks", in a rare rebuke by national EU capitals to Brussels.

This plan should offer "practical proposals and rules to address these specific challenges," they said in the letter that was dated February 4 and seen by AFP.

Without specifically naming China, economy ministers signing the letter deplored that "European companies now have to compete with foreign companies that sometimes benefit from substantial state support... in some instances to a very high degree."

Concerns were voiced last year when Ms Vestager blocked a sensitive rail merger between Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom, drawing the anger of Paris and Berlin.

Both governments believed the tie-up was necessary to counter the rise of China's state-backed CRRC, the world's biggest train manufacturer, which has yet to make a significant foothold in Europe.

The situation "calls for an evaluation and modernisation of the current European Commission guidelines" on mergers, the letter said.

The ministers also insisted that an overhaul of rules for digital giants should be given "the highest priority", with a game-plan on the table no later than June.

These proposals, which could target Google or Facebook, need to be made "without unnecessary delay, in order to avoid irreversible distortions in competition in digital markets," they said.

This would include identifying any "digital platform with paramount importance for competition" that would face special regulation, much like banks that are deemed "too big to fail" and are kept on a tighter leash by regulators.

With even tighter scrutiny of Google, Facebook and others, the EU would keep its reputation as Silicon's Valley toughest regulator.

Since she became commissioner in 2014, Ms Vestager has slapped Google with a combined US$9.5 billion in antitrust fines and scrutinised Apple and Facebook for breaches of competition, tax and data rules.

AFP