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Antitrust commissioner known as "Super Mario" bolstered EU

By Jonathan Krim
The Washington Post

VIRGINIA MAYO / AP European Union Commissioner for Competition Mario Monti speaks at a media conference at European Commission headquarters in Brussels in March. The EU found Microsoft guilty of abusing its "near monopoly" with Windows and fined it $613 million.

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And when the European Union directorate he heads ordered Microsoft to remove a key feature from its Windows operating system, the U.S. antitrust community convulsed again.

Now, as Mario Monti ends a sometimes tempestuous five-year run as Europe's antitrust commissioner, the man known as Super Mario envisions a continuing need for regulators to tackle unresolved international antitrust issues that might put some in the United States on edge.

In an interview last week, Monti said EU competition policy is "now something to be reckoned with." He said he is confident that his likely successor, Neelie Kroes, who is awaiting confirmation, is a strong advocate who can continue to push in new areas if she chooses.

Monti said he is concerned, for example, that a U.S. state is free to subsidize companies — often as inducement to locate in the state — while nations in the European Union are prevented from doing so. He said the international community needs to find a common approach to subsidies.

He also questioned whether companies should be allowed to cooperate on setting prices on products they export to other countries. Currently, such "export cartel" activity is exempt from U.S. antitrust laws, because, Monti said, the action does not hurt U.S. consumers.

Monti suggested that governments should not be able to act as cartels any more than companies. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, for example, has been able to set world oil prices and stay outside the reach of antitrust enforcement because the group is made up of governments, not companies.

As antitrust commissioner, the Italian economist often was attacked by his critics as a power-hungry academic who knew little of corporate needs. Those who believe that markets should be unrestrained thought his motivation was to make the EU a gatekeeper on the world business stage, regardless of its impact on consumers.

But others credit Monti with bringing Europe's antitrust laws more closely in line with those in the United States, even if the Americans did not see eye to eye with him on every decision.

"He has brought economics to the fore," said Ernest Gellhorn, a professor of antitrust law at George Mason University. "I may not agree with all of his analysis, but he ... invigorated antitrust enforcement. I'm an admirer."

Edward Swaine, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton school, said Monti was able to push through widespread reforms within Europe, often in the face of stiff resistance from entrenched bureaucracies in the EU's member countries.
 
For U.S. authorities, perhaps Monti's greatest achievement has been to bridge, though not entirely close, a gap in how much to weigh consumer welfare in evaluating mergers and antitrust enforcement by pushing the EU closer to the U.S. view.

Antitrust philosophy in the United States holds that two players combining into a large entity can sometimes result in more efficiency and lower prices. European doctrine traditionally considered fewer players to be a recipe for higher prices over time, and the EU continues to be wary of dominant players' ability to use their power to muscle into other markets.

Monti: EU should adopt U.S.-style lawsuits

Europe should consider allowing U.S.-style private lawsuits to help it enforce antitrust laws, European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said in an interview over the weekend.

Almost 90 percent of antitrust enforcement in the U.S. is through private civil suits, compared with almost none in the European Union.

Monti, in New York to attend an antitrust conference at Fordham University School of Law, said that to encourage litigation, the European Commission may have to provide more access to its files to potential litigants although "there will have to be limitations."

Litigation by customers has forced companies such as Microsoft to settle claims and allowed businesses such as Coca-Cola to win damages for price-fixing violations.

The European Union must avoid some aspects of the U.S. system, such as excessive class-action suits, said Monti, whose term ends this month.Bloomberg News