BEUSSELS: Margrethe Vestager, the European Union antitrust enforcer who has been the world’s foremost critic of the tech industry, recently walked through her Brussels office wondering what to do with the stuff she had accumulated during a decade in that role, which ends late this month. At one point, she paused to lift a sculpture of a hand holding up its middle finger.
“What should I do with this?” Vestager, 56, asked. The middle finger, she has said, was a reminder not to let critics get you down.
Vestager, a Danish politician who was the rare EU official to become known globally, has faced plenty of detractors over the years. When she was appointed to police antitrust in 2014, she became one of the first govt officials in the world to aggressively bring cases and fines against Google, Apple and Amazon for conducting illegal business practices and trying to block competition.
At the time, the US digital titans were growing quickly and were highly popular for their innovations. Vestager grappled with backlash for her actions, with tech leaders saying she was stymieing Europe’s economy by scaring off startups from the region.
But as Vestager closes out her era in Brussels, regulating the tech industry has become more mainstream. Thanks to her, Europe is now widely seen as the pioneer of the toughest laws against tech. US regulators have in recent years followed Europe by bringing antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon. Regulators in South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Canada and elsewhere are also taking on the tech giants. “It is extremely satisfying,” Vestager said, adding that she cried when the EU’s highest court gave her an unexpected victory in Aug in a protracted tax-avoidance case against Apple. “People thought that we were crazy because 10 years ago, Big Tech was untouchable.”
Even in Washington, Vestager has gone from outcast to trailblazer. In Sept, when she made a final visit to her counterparts at the US justice department, staff members there packed a room to hear her speak and gave her a standing ovation as she exited.
Vestager is now preparing to take a role at a university in Denmark. Teresa Ribera Rodriguez, a Spanish official, will take over as the EU top antitrust regulator on Dec 1.
Vestager said a new European law, the Digital Services Act, gave EU authorities critical new powers to regulate social media platforms. She said internet companies did not always appreciate that European laws differed from those in the United States over what constituted illegal speech, including racism, antisemitism and terrorist content. “If a platform is used to undermine democracy, well, then clearly it is not in compliance with the Digital Services Act,” she said. She said the new law was needed to take on companies, including X and Telegram, that didn’t do enough to police their platforms for harmful and illicit material. nyt