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The intrepid European Commissioner of Denmark strikes again: Wednesday, July 18, she inflicted a record fine of 4.34 billion euros on none other than Google for abuse of dominant position. At 50, Margrethe Vestager is more than ever the figurehead of the anti-Gafa crusade and anti-monopolies in Europe.
1 Knight of the competition
Before Google, the former Danish minister has pinned an impressive number of US multinationals to its hunt table: Amazon, Apple, Starbucks, McDonald's … All abused their dominant position to crush competition in Europe. "My job is to make sure everyone has a fair chance", sums up Slate .
Fine of € 4.34 bn to @Google for 3 types of illegal restrictions on Android. In this way it has cemented the dominance of its search engine. Denying rivals a chance to innovate and compete on the merits. It's illegal under EU antitrust rules. @Google now has to stop it
– Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) July 18, 2018
"Fine 4.34 billion euros for Google for three types of use restrictions on Android," tweeted soberly the Commissioner this Wednesday. In this way, Google has cemented the dominance of its search engine, removing from its competitors any chance to innovate and compete because of its merits.It is illegal in the European Union.Google must stop now. "
2 Blazing Ascension
Daughter of a Lutheran pastor couple, economics graduate, disciplined Margrethe Vestager started her career at the Ministry of Finance, and if she adds that she married a math teacher, can confidently conclude that she is not afraid of the numbers, she is not afraid of anything much, in fact, when she is appointed Danish Minister of Education. of the island of Zealand only has 29 years!
A member of the center-left and pro-European RV party, she took the reins in 2007. She became Minister of the Interior in 2011, when Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the first Prime Minister of the Danish history, comes to power. When the government falls, in September 2014, Luxembourger Jean-Claude Juncker has just been appointed President of the European Commission. Margrethe Vestager takes advantage of this timing to become European Commissioner for Competition. His obsession: restore order, regulate.
" One of the biggest illusions is to believe that the market economy works perfectly by itself," she slips to Slate.
Nothing but this sentence has something to grind a few teeth in Brussels …
3 European Star
She is the only European Commissioner who has managed to make a name ( 237,000 Twitter followers ). Margrethe Vestager immediately understood that one of the only ones with sanctioning power to take advantage of her portfolio to reconcile Europeans with their central government, and that this involved both strong political decisions and a strong media presence in all countries
Upon her appointment, the Commissioner declared war on the famous Gafa (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon). Tax optimization, law of the jungle, cheating, the "tsarina of the antitrust" attacks all over the place, often alone against lobbies. She also believes that transparency, therefore a free and powerful press, is indispensable. If all the commissioners were like her, Europe would surely become a popular idea again. She opens her door to all the journalists, answers the interviews, she is present on all the grounds, without forgetting every weekend to plow her own electoral ground, Denmark.
4 Apple
This is his biggest feat so far. In 2016, on its own, it has sought to redress 15 years of fiscal inefficiency of Europeans against Gafa and multinationals who manage to escape – most often legally – taxes in Europe. It therefore sentenced Apple to pay 13 billion euros – plus interest – to the Irish government, estimating that it was the sum that Apple would normally have paid to that country if it had respected its normal taxation (already very low) of 12.5%. It ruled that these unpaid taxes constituted state aid, distorting the market for Apple's competitors.
"Faced with complex cases, we must not drown in the details, we must simplify. Apple's case, I asked myself: is it possible that this company does not pay taxes on 60% of its turnover? No, because it then becomes an illegal state aid, which gives it an unfair advantage over its competitors.There is real European jurisprudence on these issues, and comparable cases in the past have already reached the same conclusions, "she explained at the time.
The Government Irish defended Apple, saying it did not want the check and Apple appealed, so the billions will not fall right away in the Irish coffers … and maybe never if Apple's lawyers win the lawsuit. [19659027] 5 "Tax Lady"
Googl This is another great fight Margrethe Vestager, who seized upon his arrival a very complex file that his predecessor the Spaniard Joachim Almunia had done everything to smother … or rather several nested folders, which concern all Google, the most powerful company in the world, and one of the most profitable. In 2017, she therefore condemned the company – whose parent company is now called Alphabet – to a fine of 2.42 billion euros for abuse of dominant position on its core business, research: the engine benefits to put forward its own commercial links, to the detriment of independent companies.
The second file was processed on July 18, 2018: it imposed a new fine of 4.34 billion euros for the way Google imposes its Android software in most mobile phones ( it occupies 80% of the global market), linking its use to that of its search engine. Google is also doing everything to discourage phone manufacturers from switching to software other than Android. One last file is still open: that of Google practices in the advertising market. Here, the heart of Google's revenue is at stake, and the fine could be even higher. Google has appealed the first conviction, and it will do the same with the new fine.
These decisions have earned him to be accused of anti-Americanism by Obama and Trump. The current American president would have slipped during the last G7:
"Your 'tax lady' [préposée aux impôts] … she really hates the United States."
"I really like the United States", defends itself Vestager adds: "What I feel has nothing to do with the Google case."
6 Colors
Was it voluntary trolling? We really want to believe it. When announcing the record fine against the Mountain View giant on July 18, Margrethe Vestager wore a kimono with colorful flowers, yellow, blue, green and red … the colors of the Google logo!
"It's going to be a very very big fine "seems to explain @vestager on this photo, taken shortly before the official announcement by the European Commission of the new record fine which will scoop Google pic.twitter.com/kEcBBsJUR8
– Cédric Simon (@Cedsimon) July 18, 2018
It must be said that the Commissioner, well aware of the reputation of the machine Europe, is anything but a gray techno. She loves to surround herself with colorful works of art, like on her Twitter banner. This painting hung in his office, reinterpretation of the European flag in, calls for a "revolution colored by the people". An entire program.
7 Finger of Honor
In her Brussels office in the huge Berlaymont building, which brings together the European bureaucracy, she has placed an eye-catching object : a white fist with a raised finger. It was an badociation of unemployed Swedish that had sent him in 2010, when she was driving, as Minister of Economy, a reform that had reduced the unemployment benefits. She does not regret this decision for a second, which she said helped to clean up Danish finances and stimulate the job market, thus reducing unemployment. But she still wants to keep the irreverent object with her, to remember that all the decisions that politicians make have repercussions on the citizens, and that they are not necessarily happy.
In her office, she leaves drag toys that she knitted herself and needles and balls of wool are never far away: this is how she relaxes. She also likes to test her speeches and press conferences on her golden retriever, Karlo, teaches us "Die Welt".
He is very patient with me ???? pic.twitter.com/lVs5myfTnn
– Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) May 30, 2018
8 "At the same time"
Margrethe Vestager was the president of the small party Danish liberal Socialist Party, a centrist party, which allowed him to be minister in 1998 in a center-left coalition government, then in 2011 in a center-right government, which led economic reforms badly experienced by the left. His local image came out scrambled. In France, she would therefore be perfectly in agreement with the Macronian spirit of the moment.
Minister of Religious Affairs, she officially took position for the right to blasphemy when the case of the cartoons of Mohammed published on September 30, 2005 in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten had inflamed Denmark. She later supported "Charlie Hebdo".
9 Borgen
Margrethe Vestager is also known in Denmark for co-inspiring the character of Birgitte Nyborg, the Prime Minister of the series "Borgen, a woman in power". The political phenomenon series (Borgen means "castle" in Danish) depicts an inflexible centrist party leader who becomes Prime Minister at the price of all sacrifices … A fiction that could become reality: Margrethe Vestager has never denied that a post The Prime Minister could perfectly suit her, once she has made her European apron.
10 Oléron
When she is neither in Copenhagen near her three daughters, nor at work in Brussels, Margrethe Vestager becomes a Frenchwoman almost like the others: her holiday home is on the Island Oléron. Francophone at a fairly good level, she still prefers to speak English in a professional setting: she is not sure of mastering all the nuances of our language. But that did not stop him from tweeting after the victory of the French team in Moscow "Voilà #LesBleus ! It is beautiful – congratulations to France and Europe". In French, therefore. And without fail.
Here #LesBleus ! It is beautiful – congratulations to France and Europe @equipedefrance # WorldCupFinal2018 pic.twitter.com/rHUwcfvjH0
– Margrethe Vestager (@vestager) July 15, 2018 [19659040] Claude Soula and Timothy Vilars
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