Fourteen NGOs from across Europe are calling for a change of course in EU competition policy in a manifesto published today. The EU needs an ambitious and comprehensive agenda against market concentration and monopoly power as well as more protective mechanisms against the one-sided influence of powerful corporations. The current approach does not effectively prevent more and more sectors from being dominated by a few corporations.
The manifesto “Rebalancing Europe: A new economic agenda for tackling monopoly power” (pdf) criticizes the current EU competition policy. Despite individual, important initiatives such as the “Digital Markets Act”, it does not solve the problem of increasing market concentration. The EU has reacted too hesitantly while a handful of powerful corporations have taken a stranglehold on our economic life. Hundreds of large mergers have been approved. This has led to enormous economic concentration that threatens prosperity, security and democracy in Europe. Workers and consumers suffer from the concentration of economic power just as as small businesses and company founders do. Highly concentrated supply chains are weakening Europe’s resilience and the public debate is increasingly dominated by a handful of tech giants. Market concentration is thus destabilising European societies and economies.
The EU must therefore pursue a comprehensive agenda against market concentration and monopoly power. The manifesto proposes a series of measures to this end.
The key points at a glance:
- Competition policy that puts citizens at the center and takes a broader approach: it should not only pay attention to short-term efficiency and prices, but also to the impact of monopoly power on democracy, workers, resilience and issues such as data protection and sustainability
- EU competition policy must be more closely interlinked with other policy areas such as data protection or industrial policy
- Better enforcement of existing rules, such as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as additional resources for their enforcement, for example through the introduction of fees for tech companies
- Introduction of additional instruments against monopoly power, including an instrument to structurally separate highly concentrated markets (New Competition Tool)
- Greater use of clear principles and structural remedies such as break-ups and strict merger control
- A democratisation of antitrust policy and measures against one-sided lobby influence through more transparency, a strengthening of the role of civil society in competition policy and action against the abundance of conflicts of interest at the EU competition authority.
Time for a comprehensive agenda against monopoly power
In order to advance the fight against monopoly power, we must reorganize European competition policy and arm it against one-sided influence. The EU needs a more networked and structural approach to competition policy. Mergers must be scrutinised more rigorously, and break-ups of parts of companies must not be taboo in the case of powerful corporates. Europeans deserve an open, sustainable and innovative economy in which power and wealth are widely distributed and large companies cannot take advantage of consumers, workers and other companies. Relying on big European champions would be the wrong way to go. The monopoly power of large companies undermines democracy.
The manifesto “Rebalancing Europe: A new economic agenda for tackling monopoly power” is supported by numerous German civil society organisations. These include LobbyControl, Rebalance Now, AlgorithmWatch, Digitalcourage, WEED and Aktion Agrar. Other international supporting organisations are: Open Markets Institute, SOMO – The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, Foxglove, Balanced Economy Project, The Good Lobby, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, ARTICLE 19 and CAMP.
In the coming months, the organisations want to bring the change of course in antitrust policy to the attention of the EU Commission and the candidates for the European Parliament. To this end, an event will be held in Brussels on April 15 to discuss the manifesto.
More:
- The manifesto Rebalancing Europe: A new economic agenda for tackling monopoly power (pdf)
- Conference “Rebalancing Europe: A new economic agenda for tackling monopoly power” on April 15, registration for the livestream is possible here.
