EU antitrust chief defends probe of Google, US tech giants

Europe’s top antitrust regulator Magrethe Vestager has defended her agency’s investigations of Google and other US tech giants, arguing that dominant companies have a “special responsibility” to avoid abusing their market power.

“If you have products that people like and they keep coming, you can keep growing,” Vestager told a forum at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

But she said that when companies become overwhelmingly dominant, “then you get a special responsibility because it is quite obvious that competition suffers if you control 90 percent of the market.”

The EU Competition Commissioner said this means a “responsibility not to misuse your muscle.” Vestager’s comments follow a decision by EU authorities in June to slap Google with a record 2.4-billion-euro (more than $2.7 billion) fine for illegally favoring its shopping service in search results.

A year earlier, Vestager shocked the world with an order that iPhone manufacturer Apple repay 13 billion euros ($14 billion) in back taxes in Ireland.

Vestager insisted that her actions were not aimed at punishing successful companies.

“I’ve never had the run of thinking that we are hammering big companies,” she said. “We are punishing illegal behavior.”

Vestager said maintaining competition is important for consumers even when the “products” delivered by search engines or social networks is free. (AFP)