Since 2016, the European Union and individual EU countries have levied<\/a> more than \u20ac20 billion in fines and other financial penalties against Silicon Valley for competition, antitrust and state-aid abuses.<\/p>\n Apple was hit<\/a> over its tax dealings in Ireland. Google faced three rounds of charges<\/a> against its global online empire. Facebook was judged<\/a> to have unfairly used peoples data. Investigations are also underway into Apple and Amazon. The companies deny any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n This backlog of cases and decisions has made Brussels, not Washington, the testing ground for how to bring antitrust charges against Big Tech, a role that Europe has cultivated as part of its wider effort to become the worlds policeman<\/a> for the digital world (outside of China).<\/p>\n It also has sharpened Europes officials to what does, and does not, work<\/a> to curb the power of a small stable of tech firms whose dominance over large parts of the digital economy is outpacing authorities ability to keep up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to address the power of digital platforms\u201d \u2014 Margrethe Vestager<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That includes the failure of blockbuster fines \u2014 often worth billions of euros \u2014 to keep well-capitalized companies in check because many can easily shrug off these hefty levies with little, if any, shareholder pushback. While some European politicians have repeatedly called<\/a> to break up tech giants, neither the Commission nor national governments have ever gone that far in their competition cases.<\/p>\n In response, EU competition officials like Margrethe Vestager, the blocs antitrust chief, have looked to personalize often complicated cases to woo consumers increasingly wary of Big Tech. Theyve also rejiggered the legal landscape to give regulators greater leeway in how they take on tech firms that often straddle multiple industries \u2014 blending existing competition rules with other consumer and privacy protections.<\/p>\n \u201cTheres no doubt Europe has led the way,\u201d said Ioannis Lianos<\/a>, the newly nominated<\/a> head of the Greek Competition Authority, before he took over his new role. \u201cTheres now a lot of pressure in the U.S. to act.\u201d<\/p>\n U.S. and European officials regularly meet to share ideas, with Vestager traveling to the U.S. earlier this year, and her American counterparts similarly visiting Brussels in 2019. Yet neither side has any formal cooperation mechanisms in place to share documents or findings on completed or ongoing investigations into tech firms, according to officials with knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n Despite Europe offering a precooked recipe for American authorities \u2014 the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and a number of state attorneys general have opened, or are mulling, several antitrust tech investigations \u2014 merely transferring what worked in Brussels to Washington is not a slam dunk.<\/p>\n In the EU, the European Commission acts as both judge and jury, investigating and then deciding on potential wrongdoing (companies only then can appeal to the blocs highest court). By contrast, U.S. regulators must put their claims before independent judges, who have so far taken a more lenient view toward dominant companies.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are core institutional differences that imply the results will be different,\u201d said Marianela L\u00f3pez-Galdos<\/a>, global competition counsel at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a Washington DC-based trade body whose members include Facebook and Google.<\/p>\n Despite these differences, one thing is clear: When bringing antitrust charges against Big Tech, it pays to make it personal.<\/p>\n No regulator has done that more than Vestager, Europes current competition commissioner. She has become the regions poster child for pushing back against Big Tech \u2014 and has connected with average citizens through selfies at press conferences, high-profile interviews and other tactics to win support for often complicated cases.<\/p>\n Vestager invited a television crew<\/a> from Vice, the hipster U.S. news channel, to trail her as she made her first antitrust decision against a U.S. tech company. She also has been repeatedly named<\/a> as one of the worlds most influential people by Time magazine, portraying herself as an avid knitter<\/a> with a middle-finger statue in her office to show off her steeliness.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to address the power of digital platforms,\u201d the Danish politician told an audience<\/a> in Paris earlier this year during a speech in which she referenced Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter. \u201cIts especially important that we protect the opportunities for competition that do still exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Vestagers term ends on October 31, but she is tipped for another high-profile job \u2014 which could but has not been confirmed to include responsibility for competition \u2014 in the new Commission due to take over on November 1.<\/p>\n Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition | John Thys\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n When she took over the competition portfolio in Brussels in late 2014, several landmark competition cases, most notably against Google and Gazprom, the Russian oil giant, had stalled after years of cut-throat lobbying aimed at her predecessor, Joaqu\u00edn Almunia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet in just over two years, Vestager had slapped<\/a> the search giant with a \u20ac2.42 billion fine linked to abuses in some of its search services (the company is appealing). Soon afterward, she opened two separate investigations, and subsequently issued record financial penalties against Google, while pushing back against others like Apple, Amazon and Facebook for other abuses.<\/p>\n Her overtly public standoffs with Big Tech have won her both plaudits and rebukes<\/a> from U.S. officials, including Donald Trump. Vestager has parlayed her regulatory actions into a prominent global role within policymaker circles over how much control tech companies should have over everyday life.<\/p>\n U.S. politicians like Elizabeth Warren and, ironically, Donald Trump \u2014 both of whom have called for antitrust investigations into Big Tech \u2014 have followed her playbook in personalizing their fight against Silicon Valley to win over hardcore supporters.<\/p>\n \u201cVestager was the beginning of the techlash,\u201d said a senior U.S. tech executive, whose company has had repeated dealings with both U.S. and European competition authorities. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of ongoing regulatory cases on both sides of the Atlantic. \u201cThe U.S. is poised to follow Europes and Vestagers lead.\u201d<\/p>\n Others in Europe are taking a more drastic approach \u2014 pushing the boundaries of antitrust by revamping competition rules for the 21st century.<\/p>\n With most of existing legislation created well before smartphones, social media companies and e-commerce giants even existed, regulators are applying existing rules in new ways to investigate companies that span everything from digital apps and Instagram feeds to online shopping and mobile search.<\/p>\n Thats particularly true within EU member states, where national competition authorities have often been in the vanguard<\/a> of pushing what constitutes anti-competitive behavior and what changes in corporate activity are necessary to protect consumers.<\/p>\nShe who dares, wins<\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/GettyImages-1063642690-714x481.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNew era of data antitrust<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n