What’s on the plate for the new EU Competition Commissioner?

Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager’s tenure as Commissioner responsible for EU competition policy is nearing its end, with Teresa Ribera Rodríguez nominated as her replacement.  In this video, Jay Modrall and Richard Whish KC discuss the content of the recent mission letter from Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, setting out expected areas of focus for the new Commissioner.  This includes calls for a “new approach to competition policy” to support Europe’s “new industrial policy”, a mandate to update the Commission’s horizontal merger guidelines, and addressing risks of “killer acquisitions from foreign companies”.

The video also covers other areas under reform, such as the Commission’s new guidelines on abuse of dominance, and how the mission letter links to proposals in the recent Draghi report.  This includes discussion of the proposal to revive the so-called “new competition tool”, which would be similar to a UK market investigation.  This tool had been proposed when the Digital Markets Act (DMA) was being considered, but was not ultimately included in the DMA reforms.