Margrethe Vestager Is Still Coming for Big Tech
ANTITRUST REGULATORS ARE RARELY WELL KNOWN outside of trade lobbies and industry circles. Not so Denmark’s Margrethe Vestager, who may be the world’s most famous corporate umpire. The European Union’s competition commissioner, who began an unprecedented second term last November, is something of a global celebrity: She’s a sought-after speaker, a female icon, and the person seen as most likely to rein in the unfettered dominance of the world’s biggest technology firms.
Vestager has made news with the huge fines for anti-competitive behavior she has leveled at companies such as Google and Apple. But those punitive measures were limited to Vestager’s jurisdiction—the common European market—and represent only minor stumbles for the world’s most powerful corporations. That’s why Vestager is redoubling her efforts and hoping other countries will follow her lead.
foreign policy’s Ravi Agrawal recently spoke with the Brussels-based Vestager about the future of regulation and competition in technology—and how the pandemic may have the strange effect of boosting her mission.
FOREIGN POLICY: I’ll start with an easy question. How has the coronavirus pandemic affected your work?
