Friday, September 25, 2009

Lawmakers Press On EU Antitrust Ruling

More than 20 lawmakers are urging Justice Department antitrust chief Christine Varney and FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz to view recent European antitrust rulings with a critical eye and weigh the impact of those decisions on U.S. high-tech firms such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, IBM and Qualcomm. Their effort comes on the heels of the European Commission's $1.45 billion judgment against Intel for excluding competitors from the market for chips known as x86 central processing units.

Sept. 18 letters to Varney and Leibowitz, spearheaded by Oregon Reps. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, and Greg Walden, a Republican, argue the Intel ruling "is the latest evidence of a troublesome trend in Europe toward regulatory protectionism." Other successful U.S. firms have faced hefty fines, are under investigation, or possibly face scrutiny from the Commission's competition directorate, they said. The Intel decision "ignores the reality of a highly competitive marketplace," they wrote in the document initially circulated on the Hill this summer.

Intel, which is the subject of an FTC investigation, was a major contributor to the 2008 races of Blumenauer and Walden and employs more than 15,000 people at Oregon facilities, making it the state's largest private employer. The company also has a workforce of several thousand in New Mexico. Democratic Reps. David Wu of Oregon, Harry Teague of New Mexico, Rush Holt of New Jersey, House Science Chairman Bart Gordon and others signed the letter.

"With so many of the world's successful technology companies based in the United States and very few located in the European Union or elsewhere, the administration should be an advocate of the 'American way' both at home and in foreign jurisdictions," according to the letter. Otherwise, they said, the European Commission will become "the de facto super regulator in competition matters," and its approach will shape global commerce.