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EU: All eyes on Vestager

By  |  October 30, 2014

European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia‘s final day as competition chief is Friday, when his successor, Margrethe Vestager, will take his place and inherit a slew of high-profile competition cases.

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    Experts and industry players are all watching Vestager, and reports say her first few weeks will be crucial in determining how she will execute her pro-competition rule.

    In an essay written by Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft lawyers Alec Burnside and Anne MacGregor, the authors argue that while the European Commission’s trend has been a relatively straight path of action, Almunia proved a more outspoken competition chief than others before him.

    Experts are now wondering if Vestager will similarly make waves as she takes on some of the biggest competition cases currently pending across the globe.

    Those cases, of course, include the longstanding antitrust investigation into Google, its market dominance and the way it displays rivals search results. But Almunia also launched new cases in his final weeks, including a probe of certain EU member states’ tax agreements with foreign companies like Apple and Starbucks that have earned criticism.

    Full content: Euractiv and NPR

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