Spanish Socialist Teresa Ribera set to become EU antitrust enforcer as Ursula von der Leyen appoints new team

Silicon Valley, meet your likely new European enforcers. On Tuesday morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — recently re-elected by lawmakers — announced her new team, consisting of representatives from every EU member state.

If the European Parliament approves their candidacy after hearings, these are the people who will propose new EU laws and, in many cases, enforce those already in force.

For the technology industry, the most important person will probably be Teresa Ribera, who is to replace Margrethe Vestager as head of the European antitrust authority.

Ribera, a Socialist, has served as Spain’s vice-president and environment minister and will also be responsible for implementing the European Green Deal.

However, in her role on the antitrust watchdog, she will be responsible for deciding whether Google should be broken up or not.

Last year, Vestager threatened to force Google to sell part of its ad technology businesses, saying it might be the only way to deal with Google’s monopoly position on both the buy- and sell-side of the online advertising market.

Reuters reported on Friday that the Commission would not take such a drastic step, but the decision may now lie with Ribery.

If confirmed, Ribera will also take over an investigation into the rapidly growing artificial intelligence sector.

Vestager’s team was particularly interested in the trend of large AI players hiring CEOs from smaller AI companies and licensing their technology, as has happened with Microsoft and Inflection. Some worry that this is a tactic to circumvent antitrust restrictions on more traditional mergers.

Ribera will also be the chief enforcer of the Digital Markets Act, a recently passed law that places strict limits on the activities of “gatekeepers” of big tech companies such as Meta, Google and Apple — all of which are already under investigation for non-compliance.

The Spaniard certainly has big shoes to fill. Vestager was a pioneering competition chief who made tax fairness a competition issue, forcing Ireland to demand $14.4 billion in back taxes from Apple, and who slapped Google with three massive antitrust fines totaling $9.3 billion.

The Danish candidate was not re-nominated by her country because of declining support for her liberal party at home, but she left with a sense of celebration after the EU’s top court last week upheld both her decision in the Apple case and one of the fines imposed on Google. (The court will rule on Google’s appeal in another of those cases on Wednesday.)

Meanwhile, von der Leyen’s candidate on technology policy is Henna Virkkunen of Finland, a former communications specialist with centre-right backgrounds who has just finished her term as an MEP.

One of Virkkunen’s primary roles would be to enforce the Digital Services Act, a recent package of laws covering content moderation and other issues. As a legislator, she played a key role in shaping the DSA during the legislative process.

Until now, enforcement of the DSA has been largely the responsibility of Thierry Breton, the former CEO of France Telecom, who caused a sensation in the US by regularly arguing with Elon Musk over X’s alleged violations of the new rules.

Indeed, when Breton publicly warned Musk against spreading disinformation in an interview with former President Donald Trump last month, he did not initially seek the approval of von der Leyen and other aides. Reports suggest that her outrage was a key reason she rejected Breton’s reappointment to the Commission.

X has already faced charges from the DSA, and if the charges are confirmed, Virkkunen will also take over the DSA’s formal investigations into Meta and AliExpress.

Apart from big technology companies, European startups will also have their first commissioner – it will be the Bulgarian Yekaterina Zakhareva.

Stéphane Séjourné, Breton’s successor at the European Commission, is also likely to have an impact on the technology sector as head of industrial strategy.

This story was originally published on Fortune.com