Europe in no hurry to loosen antitrust stance
Looser antitrust stance would face resistance
Draghi report offers fresh ideas, still pro-competition
Vestager set to hand over reins to successor
By Mark John, Foo Yun Chee
Sept 16 (Reuters) -Mario Draghi's call last week for a revamp of Europe's tough pro-competition policy rules prompted much speculation that the EU's next antitrust chief may take a lighter-touch approach to mergers that could yield European industrial "champions".
While that may ultimately depend on the political mood in Brussels and Europe's national capitals as the bloc's economy lags behind its global rivals, there is little for now to suggest a more permissive shift, sources and analysts said.
If anything, the EU consensus remains intact that policies that uphold competition, keep down prices and ensure a level playing field across the 27 national markets of the EU are one of the few bright spots in the region's struggling economy.
"If you loosen EU competition rules to build huge companies, create European champions, you will get companies that are French, German and Italian. The smaller countries will wonder 'What's in it for us?'," said one senior euro zone official.
Certain deals - for example one that helped a green technology player against Chinese competition - could be politically viable, the official said, but added: "If it were to be across the board, then it is a no-go".
The EU's high-profile antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who only last week scored two major wins against Big Tech on tax fairness and anticompetitive practices, will soon hand over to her successor in a new European Commission lineup.
Who that is will depend on fraught negotiations between EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and member states to produce a team reflecting the geographic and political balance within the region, as well as gender and other criteria.
But any new arrival will be greeted by a near 900-head Directorate General of Competition which, long-time antitrust watchers say, is institutionally imbued with a belief in the economic benefits of strong competition policy.
"And a new Competition Commissioner is always dependent on their services," said Umberto Gambini, partner at the Forward Global business consultancy and a former European Parliament lawmaker specialised in antitrust and state aid matters.
HIGH BURDEN OF PROOF
It is far from clear in any case that what Draghi proposed last week would be a radical departure from the current line.
In his long-awaited 400-page report, the former European Central Bank noted "there is a question" about whether vigorous competition policy prevented European companies reaching the scale needed to compete with Chinese or American giants.
In particular he proposed that future antitrust rulings take more into account factors such as whether a merger might give the new entity more investment clout to innovate.
But asked if that meant any Commission acting on his proposals today would likely rubber-stamp the Alstom-Siemens engineering mega-merger it blocked in 2019, he only said "some of the reasons for blocking that merger would not be there".
"Let me be very clear: we start from a common condition ... Competition is good. It is good for investment, good for productivity and good for income distribution," he said.
Indeed, the Draghi report put the burden on the merging parties to justify why any "innovation defence" should override other concerns about their link-up - with an especially high bar for companies that are already dominant market players.
That reassured supporters of the strong pro-competition policy promoted by Europe and which the Biden administration has sought to take on board with Lina Kahn as chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
"A lot of people in Europe were telling me the (Draghi) report was going to say we needed less competition enforcement ... That is not what he said," Fiona Scott Morton, senior fellow at the EU economic think tank Bruegel said.
Instead she pointed to his proposals on new tools to boost antitrust enforcement; to force firms to make their networks and products interoperable with others'; and how to judge risks such as future product shortages in any merger decision.
"There are some nice new ideas as well as a doubling-down to make sure we have productivity in the economy and not a bunch of lazy monopolists who charge high prices and don't deliver," she said.
Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Hugh Lawson
면책조항: XM Group 회사는 체결 전용 서비스와 온라인 거래 플랫폼에 대한 접근을 제공하여, 개인이 웹사이트에서 또는 웹사이트를 통해 이용 가능한 콘텐츠를 보거나 사용할 수 있도록 허용합니다. 이에 대해 변경하거나 확장할 의도는 없습니다. 이러한 접근 및 사용에는 다음 사항이 항상 적용됩니다: (i) 이용 약관, (ii) 위험 경고, (iii) 완전 면책조항. 따라서, 이러한 콘텐츠는 일반적인 정보에 불과합니다. 특히, 온라인 거래 플랫폼의 콘텐츠는 금융 시장에서의 거래에 대한 권유나 제안이 아닙니다. 금융 시장에서의 거래는 자본에 상당한 위험을 수반합니다.
온라인 거래 플랫폼에 공개된 모든 자료는 교육/정보 목적으로만 제공되며, 금융, 투자세 또는 거래 조언 및 권고, 거래 가격 기록, 금융 상품 또는 원치 않는 금융 프로모션의 거래 제안 또는 권유를 포함하지 않으며, 포함해서도 안됩니다.
이 웹사이트에 포함된 모든 의견, 뉴스, 리서치, 분석, 가격, 기타 정보 또는 제3자 사이트에 대한 링크와 같이 XM이 준비하는 콘텐츠 뿐만 아니라, 제3자 콘텐츠는 일반 시장 논평으로서 "현재" 기준으로 제공되며, 투자 조언으로 여겨지지 않습니다. 모든 콘텐츠가 투자 리서치로 해석되는 경우, 투자 리서치의 독립성을 촉진하기 위해 고안된 법적 요건에 따라 콘텐츠가 의도되지 않았으며, 준비되지 않았다는 점을 인지하고 동의해야 합니다. 따라서, 관련 법률 및 규정에 따른 마케팅 커뮤니케이션이라고 간주됩니다. 여기에서 접근할 수 있는 앞서 언급한 정보에 대한 비독립 투자 리서치 및 위험 경고 알림을 읽고, 이해하시기 바랍니다.
