Key Points
BRUSSELS, July 19 (Reuters) - A French-led backlash led to a U.S. economist withdrawing from a top European Union antitrust job on Wednesday, a move some economists said risks undermining competition policy-making...
EU antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, triggered the furore last week by picking Fiona Scott Morton as the chief economist of the EU's antitrust unit, the competition arm currently running probes into U.S. tech giants Alphabet (GOOGL.O),.
Scott Morton, 56, a Yale economics professor who held the post of chief economist at the U.S. Department of Justice just over a decade ago, has acted as a consultant for some Big Tech companies including Apple, Amazon and Microsoft..
The issue with this nomination was neither American nor French, it is a matter of European interest," she said.. Namur University law professor Alexandre De Streel, who with Nobel economics Laureate Jean Tirole and Toulouse School of Economics' Jacques Cremer, has published academic papers jointly with Scott Morton and defended her appointment, said her decision to quit was a big loss for EU competition policy...
"The Commission should have explained much better that competition policy is engrained in business reality and therefore, having worked for firms should be seen as an asset and not a liability," he said.. Thirty-nine top economists on both sides of the Atlantic earlier this week rallied round Scott Morton with an open letter pointing to her vast experience, commitment to public service and call for a stronger regulation of large tech firms...
You might be interested in
EU Commission sticks to US economist pick for senior antitrust job
14, Jul, 23The European Commission stuck to its guns on Friday, saying it was not reconsidering EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager's pick of a U.S. economist to a senior job helping to oversee Big Tech despite criticism from French ministers and EU lawmakers.
EU legislation on Big Tech funding 5G rollout likely for next Commission, sources say
10, Oct, 23EU industry chief Thierry Breton will likely set out a strategy next year requiring Big Tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and broadband across Europe, leaving it to the next European Commission to decide whether to adopt legislation, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.