Compliance Toolkit

Europe asserts its right to regulate

Tags:
Regulate,
Europe,
US,
Intel

Evan Hansen and Declan McCullagh CNET News

Published: 11 Jun 2004 10:40 BST

Pate says, however, that with some exceptions, the two governments generally enjoy a "positive, strong and mature transatlantic antitrust enforcement relationship."

Robert Lande, who teaches antitrust law at the University of Baltimore, says the European point of view is closer to the Clinton administration's than the Bush administration's.

"If you were to say, 'How do you compare (former US Assistant Attorney General) Joel Klein to Mario Monti, there's not much of a difference," Lande says. "But if you're going to compare (former Assistant Attorney General) Charles James and (Federal Trade Commission chairman) Tim Muris, those folks are much more conservative; much less inclined to file lawsuits."

Lande said that when he worked at the FTC in the late 1970s, there was little understanding of or cooperation with European governments. Now, however, "realistically we're in a bipolar antitrust world. They are now our co-equal. They may have a different philosophy than we do, but we can't ignore them. They're no longer our little brother. They're our equal."

Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, said his members -- the group represents small to medium-sized technology companies -- should be worried about Europe's increased interest in regulating US firms.

"This is a trend that I've been concerned about for the last six years," Zuck said. "Firms are going to be spending more and more money on lawyers and less and less on programmers. You're going to see either a lot of litigation or a decrease in innovation."