Interview With Joaquin Almunia

Jul 21, 2015

CPI Europe Column edited by Anna Tzanaki (Competition Policy International) & Juan Delgado (Global Economics Group) presents:

Interview With Joaquin Almunia interview by Juan Delgado (Global Economics Group)

Joaquin Almunia has occupied particularly important positions in Europe. As Economics and Finance Commissioner he lived through the start of the financial crisis and, as Competition Commissioner, zealously oversaw the bank rescue process. His time at the Directorate General for Competition has produced important landmarks such as the Google case, the tax benefits to large enterprises and the Antitrust Damages Directive. Today, we ask him to look ahead and analyze the future changes to competition policy and to Europe itself… As we have come to expect, his response was far from disappointing.

JUAN DELGADO – Mr. Almunia, we are now witnessing the start of a Competition Policy for the Internet. Do you think the future of competition policy and anticompetitive practices lies within the Web, or do we still have plenty left in the “physical world”?

Joaquín Almunia: The online world has created new tensions between platforms, content providers and infrastructure owners. The power of platforms grows as their capacity to obtain and process data increases, and along with it the creation of dominant positions and the possibility for abuse also grows. On the other hand, the internet generates large efficiencies, and so the application of C