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Getty Images / Bloomberg / BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI
The new battle in technology is between the fiscal lady of Europe and the American president. That's Margrethe Vestager against Donald Trump in a daring regulatory scum for supremacy. Stake? The fates of Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and any other leading American technology company on the market you want to name
"Your tax expert, she hates states United States, "lamented US President Donald Trump. made to committee chair Jean-Claude Juncker earlier this week. The barbed-wire commentary targeted Margrethe Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief, who recently condemned Google for billions of dollars in fines for anti-competitive behavior and ordered Apple to pay 13 billion euros in fines. # 39; arrears of taxes in Ireland.
Vestager, an experienced and eminently sensitive politician, insists that his decisions against American companies have nothing to do with politics. "I love the United States a lot," she said at a press conference following Google's announcement of a $ 4.3 billion fine. ########################################################################## 39 euros for its illegal use of Android in order to consolidate its dominant position in the search engine markets. Vestager contends that its enforcement of established competition law is not political. "We do it in the world, but we do not do it in a political context," she told reporters
. But in Trump America, everything is only war and politics. Vestager's perceived policy will irritate the protectionist United States. Despite the protests of the commission, the last anti-trust decision against Google did not happen in a vacuum. A few days ago, Trump told to CBS that what the EU did in the United States in trade made it "an enemy". Giving Google one of the biggest antitrust fines in history will not help things.
To get an idea of what's coming, take a look at the world of finance. Driven by an increasingly unstable euro area, many lenders have sought to solve problems within national borders, creating a fragmented or balkanized financial sector. Since the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, this behavior has been encouraged by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic who, intentionally or coincidentally, have hurt foreign companies while protecting theirs.
This regulatory balkanization in the frightened area. Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, urged the industry to "repair this financial fragmentation", while Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, felt that this trend was threatening "the good functioning of the international financial system ". system. "It was in 2014. Four years later, things have gotten worse.The superposition of regulation has increased the cost of doing business and created a more fragmented financial sector. Is bad news for the free movement of capital, but good news for protectionism.The lesson to be learned from the balkanization of the financial sector is clear: when the US and the EU 's face and that the respective regulators fail to hear on fundamental issues, this creates major headaches for large companies.woman deciding Google's fate
Fast forward to 2018 and the United States is now engaged in a escalating global trade war, with levies and tariffs such as swords. As a result, the retaliation that has haunted the financial sector for years may spill over everything from aluminum imports to antitrust fines against tech companies. In the case of Google, many in the United States will see the latest decision of the EU with a hint of suspicion and derision.
That the EU and the United States do not agree on the regulation of gargantuan technological enterprises. Since the Clinton administration, US politicians have criticized the EU 's tougher approach. But under Trump, such decisions are being made in a powder keg that is likely to further ignite relations between the EU and the United States. It remains to be seen how, if any, the continued pursuit of US businesses by the EU will be countered by the Trump administration. But now, perhaps more than ever, such decisions may further widen the gap between two political powers
While Apple's aggressive pursuit of the US, Google et al. seems to disagree with US regulators, it is more to American inaction than European protectionism. In 2013, US regulators closed a nearly two-year investigation into Google's dominant position without taking any action. And rather than getting closer to the regulatory approach of Europe, the United States has turned its head in the opposite direction. In February, Makan Delrahim, elected last year by Trump to head the antitrust division of the Justice Department, said that EU decisions against big tech companies in the United States were likely to be in jeopardy. smother the innovation. "Where there is no demonstrable harm to consumers, we are reluctant to impose special rights on digital platforms," Delrahim said in a barbed speech in Brussels. The United States, he said, favors an evidence-based approach. In his protests against the EU, Google criticized him for not having proven the harm done to the consumer.
Vestager would argue that all this drama is a distracting political entertainment. The facts are facts: Google has violated European competition law and must pay the price. Yet the threat of balkanization is clear: the commission's rust-proof approach is now totally at odds with the United States. For technology companies accustomed to doing business on a large scale across national borders, this poses a problem: how do they operate in the EU and the US away from them more? ?
A regulatory war between the United States and the EU could, at its extreme, force the creation of two Google or two Amazons. Vestager has stopped demanding that Google be dismantled, but against a reactionary American administration, the risk of political retaliation should put everyone under severe strain.
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