One Year on

Abstract

Competition enforcement is a broad church. Each of us—lawyers and economists, business people, and public officials—has a different and valuable perspective to offer. But there is one basic conviction that we all share: competition matters to people’s daily lives. That is why, at the confirmation hearing before the European Parliament, I said that my main task as commissioner would be to protect competition in the interests of consumers and businesses. And as the past year has shown, competition enforcement can change things for the better, without compromising on fair and transparent processes. My concern has been to ensure that our work is firmly grounded on independence, fairness, transparency, legal certainty, and due process. As part of this respect for due process, I am scrupulously careful not to comment on details of ongoing investigations. Independent enforcement is also one of the main objectives of our forthcoming initiative to help national competition authorities enforce the EU competition rules more effectively. At the same time, no public authority has unlimited resources. We have to focus on the most important issues, with the greatest impact on people’s lives. Enforcing competition rules is about protecting consumers. To ensure that they are not harmed by artificially high prices or by limited access to the products they want. The most serious competition infringements remain at the heart of our work. Cartels are the antithesis of competitive markets. They remove any incentive to innovate, invest, or otherwise serve customers’ needs. Naturally, busting cartels is a very important priority. For example, we adopted a decision in October 2015 against optical disc drive manufacturers that colluded to rig tenders. Every day millions of EU citizens use devices with optical disc drives like desktop computers, laptops, and games consoles. Keeping these markets competitive is therefore important. This is just one example of cartels affecting mass markets. Competition enforcement also contributes to the Commission’s 10 key priorities for action, including a better single market for both on-line services and energy. Action is needed to ensure that consumers have access to a wide choice of goods and services at the best possible prices. They are also the areas where we need action at the EU level to make a real difference. So, when it comes to tackling abuses of dominant market positions, we have pressed ahead with a number of cases in energy and digital markets. In April, we sent a Statement of Objections to Gazprom about partitioning Central and Eastern European gas markets, for example by reducing customers’ ability to resell gas cross-border. This may have enabled Gazprom to charge unfair prices in certain Member States. We also took action on Bulgaria’s energy markets. In March, we sent a Statement of Objections to Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) about hindering competitors’ access to key gas infrastructure. And in December, we closed a separate antitrust case against BEH, concerning electricity, after the company committed to make it easier to trade electricity, improve price transparency, and promote integration with neighbouring countries’ markets. Turning to the digital economy, we sent a Statement of Objections to Google in April alleging abuse of a dominant position in the market for general internet search by systematically favouring its own comparison shopping product, thereby stifling competition and harming consumers. We also formally opened a separate investigation into Google’s conduct as regards the mobile operating system Android. And, we launched an e-commerce sector inquiry into barriers to accessing goods and services on-line across borders. In the field of mergers, our cases are to some extent chosen for us, by the deals that parties choose to do. With the worst of the economic crisis behind us, merger activity is picking up and we have dealt with a number of important cases in energy and telecoms markets. Consolidation has been a major theme in Europe’s telecom markets this year. Operators claim that they need scale to invest in better quality, speed, and coverage. We will always listen to their arguments; but we will also check their claims against market realities and consumers’ interests.