Vestager: Europe can start antitrust investigation if companies leave EU

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager says Europe can start new antitrust investigations into big tech companies if they threaten to disappear from the European market. Vestager is responding to the controversy in Australia surrounding Facebook and Google.

According to Bloomberg, the European Commissioner for Competition made the statements to the economic committee of the European Parliament. She says there she believes there is scope to explore whether it is legal for ‘dominant providers’ to stop their services. The EU would have “multiple ways” to investigate and possibly shut it down.

Vestager says such an investigation would be possible should large companies decide to stop providing their services in Europe. That is not the case at the moment. There are, however, several issues in Australia. There, Facebook and Google are at odds with the government. Australia wants to oblige Facebook and Google to pay news publishers to post articles. As a result, Google threatened to stop using the search engine, but later decided to make deals with publishers. Facebook made it impossible to share news from Australian publishers for a while, though it said earlier this week it was lifting the block.

Meanwhile, Google has received a slap on the wrist from the trade watchdog in France, Reuters writes. Parent company Alphabet would not adhere to the rules set by the regulator for negotiating with news publishers. Google is talking with publishers in that country about compensation for posting news. According to a report from the trade authority, Google would not meet deadlines during those negotiations and not provide enough data to the publishers. The report does not automatically mean that the company will also be investigated. In theory, such an investigation could be conducted and, in extreme cases, lead to fines, but no decision has yet been made, sources told Reuters.