The 51-year-old Wester is called “Silicon Valley Nightmare”. She is investigating Amazon’s anti-competitive behavior. She once imposed a fine of 8.2 billion euros ($9 billion) on Google and asked Apple to pay 13 billion euros. A total of $14.3 billion in taxes.
Editor’s note: This article is from Tencent Technology, reviewing the Golden Deer.
Margrethe Vestager, EU Antitrust Leadership
October 8th, according to foreign media reports, EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager is ready to win another five-year term, and will even have additional power to make rules for Internet giants . As a policy maker, she has the task of making Europe adapt to the digital age.
It is reported that on Tuesday night local time, Westerge will accept interviews with European parliamentarians in order to decide whether to approve her to serve as the vice chairman of the European Commission from November 1.
The 51-year-old Wester is called “Silicon Valley Nightmare”. She is investigating Amazon’s anti-competitive behavior. She has imposed a fine of 8.2 billion euros ($9 billion) on Google and asked Apple to pay 13 billion. Euro (about $14.3 billion) in taxes.
At the same time, Westerge is not soft on large European companies: she refuses to succumb to political pressure from Paris and Berlin, prevents strategic deals between Siemens and Alstom, and is currently investigating powerful German cars. Misconduct in the industry.
The following are some of the most significant decisions Wester has made so far:
Apple tax payment
Westerge asked Apple to pay huge taxes to Ireland. Her focus is on Ireland’s tax incentives for Apple, allowing Apple to pay only 1% of its effective corporate tax on its European profits in 2003. Apple lawyers told the court last month that Apple was unfairly portrayed as a “tax evader” and hoped that the Fa-rect would overthrow this order.
Google Power
Google has been hit hard by Westerge three times: shopping for discriminationCompetitors were fined a record €2.4 billion and were fined €4.3 billion last year for binding their search and browser apps to the freely released Android phone software. The company was fined 1.5 billion euros for violations related to its advertising contract in March.
Google is refuting these penalties in court. While it’s hard to hurt Google’s business, the search giant is still struggling with how Google follows regulatory authorities and stops anti-competitive behavior.
Amazon Data
This summer, the world’s largest retailer became the official antitrust target, because Westerge said she would review whether the company is using data from other sellers collected using the Amazon market platform to gain an edge. Amazon denies any anti-competitive behavior, but the survey is concerned with the concerns of small companies on the Amazon platform they rely on, and sometimes they face competition from Amazon’s own brands.
Follow Facebook
Facebook could have refused to pay a fine of 110 million euros because they didn’t tell Westerge’s team how they could link the data to the instant messaging service WhatsApp. But Wester is currently conducting a rigorous antitrust review of several of the social networking giant’s business areas, including its sales platform, how to use and share application data, and the proposed digital currency Libra.
Railway Trading
Westerge faced fierce criticism from French and German officials because she vetoed a proposed European railroad agreement that would allow Siemens and Alstom to jointly compete with rivals from China. Westerg dismissed accusations that she did not do enough to help European companies fight against Asian competitors, saying that the EU rules would not allow a deal that would create a high-iron monopoly and raise European prices.
Cars and Trucks
The highest level of antitrust fines in Europe so far has caused Daimler, DAF, Volkswagen and other truck manufacturers to be fined 3.8 billion euros for plotting to manipulate prices for 14 years. In addition, Volkswagen and Daimler learned from another antitrust investigation of automotive clean emissions technologies: Both companies quickly cooperated with regulators in exchange for exemptions or lower fines. (Tencent Technology Review / Jinlu)