8:14 a.m. ET, March 11, 2019
EU competition chief on Elizabeth Warren plan to break up Big Tech: 'We would try almost everything else' before taking such a big step
CNN Business' Sara Ashley O'Brien
Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition, is known for keeping Silicon Valley's tech giants on their toes. She levied a record antitrust fine against Google's (
GOOGL) Android operating system in 2018, and her office is
looking into Amazon's use of data.
She was questioned on stage at SXSW on Sunday by CNN's Meredith Artley. Vestager, who said she was attending the conference for the first time, weighed in on Elizabeth Warren's
proposal, released Friday, to break up Big Tech:
"We’re trying to make the marketplace work and be [fair and] competitive, but with tools that are not as far reaching as breaking up the companies."
Earlier Sunday, at a small press breakfast, Vestager said about the tech monoliths: "You're more than welcome to be successful. The thing is that you cannot misuse the success to make it impossible for other people to compete against you."
European law would allow a proposal similar to Warren's, Vestager told reporters at the breakfast. "But it would, for us, be an issue of the very, very, very last resort. I'd say we would try almost everything else before we'd ever get to consider that option because obviously, for us as a European market, that would be quite far-reaching."
She said her office has succeeded in imposing cease-and-desist actions or fines against companies. Regulators in Europe have stepped up their efforts to address issues raised by concentration in tech.
Facebook (
FB) last week announced it would make
privacy a bigger priority — a development
Vestager said her office will watch closely. Any moves by Facebook to move privacy higher on its business agenda is a "very good thing," she said.
Vestager was diplomatic in her stance about Big Tech in Silicon Valley. She told Artley: "I think it would be wrong to say that they’re good or bad — they’re business people and if they do something illegal, of course as law enforcers, we should be there."