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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ahhaha who wrote (342)	10/21/2000 3:34:31 PM
From: Ahda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

Of Laws,Men and Messes Wonderland SATURDAY OCTOBER 21 2000 EU seeks powers to break up companies FROM DAVID LISTER IN BRUSSELS THE European Commission could order the break-up of some of the world's largest companies under radical plans aimed at increasing its powers, it emerged yesterday. The proposal, which would allow Brussels to split up companies it found to have acted anti-competitively, provoked protests from industry, and claims that business groups had been deliberately excluded from consultations over the plan. “Theoretically the Commission could order the break-up of a company like Microsoft,” Erik Berggren, EU competition policy adviser at Unice, the Brussels-based confederation of employers’ groups, said. The Confederation of British Industry also said it was “concerned” about the plan, which would dramatically extend the Commission's powers. Under the terms of the proposal, which is part of a draft regulation that also gives the Commission powers to search employees' homes and subject company directors to detailed interrogations, the Commission would be able to order “all remedies necessary, including structural remedies” to stop a firm breaking EU antitrust laws. The plans come at an awkward time for Brussels, which is facing accusations that the procedure under which firms can defend themselves from EU investigations is too weak. The Commission attempted to play down the significance of the proposal, which was included in a document published at the end of last month but overlooked until now. Business groups, in a thinly disguised criticism of Brussels, however, complained that the plan was kept quiet when the regulation was announced and was not in earlier versions of the draft law. A spokesman for Mario Monti, the EU’s Competition Commissioner, said the proposal only was intended to confirm a power Brussels had already in theory. He said: “What we are saying is that (the EC could take a decision, including imposing structural remedies on companies. In the last resort it could mean divestments or, ultimately, breaking up a company.” Suggestions that Signor Monti was trying to sneak through the proposal were “total nonsense”, he said. Mr Berggren said: “It would be naive to think (the Commission was trying to smuggle this through without anybody noticing, and we are not accusing them of that. But this was not announced, it was not discussed with us, and we are wondering what it means. It is the lack of clarity we are concerned about.” The move also drew criticism from anti-trust and competition experts. Alec Burnside, at Linklaters & Alliance, in Brussels, said: “The big question is what the procedural safeguards would be before (the Commission could do a judgment of Solomon and just cut the child in two. ( believes it has this power already and is just writing it down to be sure, but that is wishful thinking”. The Commission can impose fines of up to 10 per cent of a firm’s worldwide turnover if it breaches EU anti-trust rules. The new proposal needs European Parliament and EU member state approval before becoming law, which could take up to two years