Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission
The European Union’s Margrethe Vestager is to meet with Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and more Big Tech executives to discuss EU digital regulation.
Despite leading Europe’s moves to increase taxation on Big Tech firms, and also to open up App Store to alternatives, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager has previously said she is opposed to breaking up large technology firms. She described such moves as “doable,” but said I think it’s important we try these routes [regulation and taxation] first with the platforms.”
According to Reuters, Vestager is now coming to the US to discuss these routes with the heads of Apple, Google, Broadcom, and Nvidia. She will meet with them on Thursday January 11, 2024, and Friday, January 12, 2024, in San Francisco and Palo Alto.
Vestager is also due to meet with OpenAI’s chief technology officer Mira Murati, and its chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, but no details have been announced.
The meetings see Vestager resuming her duties as EU antitrust chief, having failed to become head of the European Investment Bank. According to Reuters, antitrust experts now expect Vestager to take a tougher stance on issues such as mergers and competition.
Separately, despite Vestager arguing that breaking up Big Tech firms would “tie you up in court for a very long time,” the European Commission has said that “only the mandatory divestment by Google of part of its services would address [our] competition concerns.”
