EU, U.S. to Discuss Tougher Antitrust Orders, Vestager Says

(Bloomberg) -- European Union and U.S. antitrust enforcers are set to discuss ways to order powerful companies to fix problems they're causing rivals, said Margrethe Vestager, the EU's competition commissioner.

Regulators may have to go beyond cease-and-desist orders and “order those companies to neutralize the effects that they've had on competition,” Vestager said in a Monday speech to the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

“I expect this issue will be an important theme for us in April, when we meet our counterparts from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission” to discuss so-called remedies, she said.

The EU has been weighing harsher action against big tech after critics complained that three antitrust probes into Google's behavior didn't bring substantial change to online markets the company now dominates. Vestager has suggested a potential curb on digital companies' behavior that could prevent them expanding into new markets.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aoife White in Brussels at awhite62@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser, Sara Forden

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