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EU Anti-Trust Chief Says Tech Giant Problem Isn’t Big Enough to Warrant Breaking Them Up

European Commission competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said breaking up tech giants could make the issues that face consumers and rivals worse.

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The EU's competition commissioner believes breaking up tech giants like is yet to be a necessary solution. Margrethe Vestager spoke on the matter at the Lisbon Web Summit in Lisbon, following concerns by some prominent figures in the industry and US politics.

In an op-ed in May, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes expressed his belief that Facebook has a social media and should be broken up. He estimates that it holds more than 80% of the world's social media revenue and says its CEO's plan has always been domination.

However, Vestager believes such a move would be unlikely to resolve the big issues and should be used as a last resort.

“From a competition point of view, you would have to do something where breaking up the company was the only solution to illegal behavior,” she said. “We don't have that kind of case right now. I will never exclude that that could happen. But so far, we don't have a problem that big, where breaking up a company would be the solution.”

The Hydra Dilemma

Her sentiment echoes that of founder Bill Gates, who said in September he opposes such an idea. Splitting a company in two rather than banning abusive behavior only means two companies will perform the acts rather than one, he argues.

Of course, Microsoft was hit by a landmark anti-trust case back in 2001 that almost resulted in the company being split up. Eventually, the ruling was revoked, but not without the company agreeing to a number of regulations like sharing its APIs.

After a term of tough decisions that involve a total of $9.41 billion in fines for Google, Vestager has been instated for another five years. This time, she'll have an expanded role that includes technology policy as well as anti-trust. Like Gates, though, she said “if you know the story about a kind of creature, when you chopped off one head … I think one, two, or seven came out.”

Instead, she wants to see more companies taking action on abusive behavior, instead of just saying they will. Vestager points to Twitter as a positive example after the platform banned political advertising.

As for which service Vestager is scrutinizing next – it's Pay. According to Reuters, she said at the Libson conference that the EU has “been asking quite a number of questions” to the iPhone maker. Meanwhile, she noted concerns about Facebook's digital currency Libra, which has s

Ryan Maskell
Ryan Maskellhttps://ryanmaskell.co.uk
Ryan has had a passion for gaming and technology since early childhood. Fusing the skills from his Creative Writing and Publishing degree with profound technical knowledge, he enjoys covering news about Microsoft. As an avid writer, he is also working on his debut novel.

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