The EU’s antitrust chief is turning to scientists to help him tackle technological challenges

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who has battled Google, Apple and Qualcomm in recent years, is looking for three academics to help her deal with anti-competitive practices in fast-changing technology markets. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned about the power a few giant tech companies have over businesses and users, with critics even calling for a rewrite of antitrust enforcement laws to make them more interventionist. However, others argue that law enforcement authorities have no obligation to predict how new technologies should develop and where and how they should be used. Acting Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission Maureen Ohlhausen in a recent speech questioned whether law enforcement agencies are truly qualified to pick winners and losers in today’s economy. Vestager said the three experts, appointed for a year, will summarize their views on the future challenges of digitalization in a report by the end of March 2019. “Digitalization means that markets are going through huge changes – not just technology markets, but markets across the world economy,” Vestager said in a statement on Wednesday. “One example is how reliance on data and artificial intelligence will continue to impact the way companies operate and interact. Or how voice control will impact customer service. These are just a few of many questions.” The academic staff are Heike Schweitzer, managing director of the Institute for German and European Economic Law, Competition Law and Regulatory Law; Jacques Cremer, former research director at the Toulouse School of Economics; and Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, lecturer at the Institute of Data Science and Department of Computer Science, Imperial College London. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Mark Potter)