European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager will not be re-elected for a third term, according to the Financial Times.
Vestager’s decade-long career as Europe’s top antitrust regulator was marked by historic division and record fines against tech giants such as Google, Apple and Amazon. Her implementation of the Digital Markets Act in 2023 and her antitrust rulings earned her both praise and criticism.
The 56-year-old company saw Google face antitrust fines totalling €8.25 billion and earned the nickname of the EU's “tax lady” from former US President Donald Trump. A €4 billion fine in 2018 for forcing Android device makers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome was the largest in EU antitrust history.
In her first two terms, Vestager also faced Meta, Qualcomm, Alstom and Siemens, the latter two for blocking her merger. Qualcomm was fined €997 million for abusing its market dominance in baseband chipsets.
In 2016, Apple was ordered to pay Ireland €14.3 billion after it was found to have received illegal tax benefits for more than a decade, but the European Union's General Court overturned the order in 2020. CEO Tim Cook called the fine “total political nonsense.”
However, when the DMA designated the seven “gatekeeper” organizations, it forced the big players to make real changes. For example, in March, Google removed some search widgets, such as Google Flights, to allow greater access to individual companies in response to a DMA ruling.
It also added new settings to choose how data is shared between different Google services and so-called “choice screens” for Android and Chrome to encourage users to choose their preferred search engine or browser.
Although Vestager gained popularity for her tough stance on antitrust issues, her popularity has diminished recently after a series of legal challenges to her decisions. This includes ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, which is opposing her appointment as a watchdog.
She lost even more support in Brussels when French President Emmanuel Macron blocked her bid to lead the European Investment Bank. One MP from her Renaissance party told Politico bluntly: “No Vestager!” And in 2022, her Social Liberal party lost its place in Denmark’s coalition government.
Vestager's replacement as European Competition Commissioner will be nominated by the ruling Social Democratic Party in the autumn, the FT reports, and is expected to be one of three men: Belgian Commissioner Didier Reynders, Dutch Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra or French Commissioner Thierry Breton.
Notable DMA rulings under Vestager
On June 24, Apple became the first tech giant to be formally charged by the European Commission for violating the Digital Markets Act.
The Commission found that Apple has three sets of commerce rules that ultimately prevent iOS app developers from directing their users to third-party purchasing options. This contradicts the DMA, which states that developers should be able to direct their customers to purchasing options outside the App Store easily and free of charge.
On July 1, the commission ruled that a second organization, Meta, had failed to comply with the DMA. Its “pay or consent” advertising model, in which users who subscribe to Instagram or Facebook can opt out of receiving personalized ads, does not provide a service equivalent to one with paid ads if users opt in. It also does not “allow users to exercise their right to freely consent to the combination of their personal data.”
Investigations into these sentences were opened at the end of March.
Alphabet also faced scrutiny at the time over how it presents Google search results, since they can direct customers back to Google services such as Shopping, Flights or Hotels. Google had temporarily removed the Flights unit from search results after the DMA went into effect in early March.
In January, Apple took a number of steps to comply with the DMA, including changing its payment system for app sellers in the EU and relinquishing the control its App Store has over the distribution of iOS apps in the EU. It also began requiring iOS users in the EU to select their preferred browser instead of Safari. However, in March it was fined €1.84 billion for imposing anti-gating provisions on music streaming apps.
