The Register - Euro antitrust cop Margrethe Vestager to depart after decade of reining in Big Tech

Europe director Max von Thun acknowledges here that while Margrethe Vestager faced criticism for not fully curbing tech monopolies, she was for many years the only politician on the global stage trying to check the dominance of Big Tech.

Europe's top competition cop, Margrethe Vestager, will reportedly be stepping down later this year, a development certain to please the US tech firms she called to the carpet.

According to the Financial Times, the poor showing of her Social Liberal party in Denmark's 2022 election means she will not get renominated for a third term. The ruling Social Democrat party is expected to nominate a replacement from among the three men being considered.

Vestager – said to have been the inspiration for Birgitte Nyborg, the fictional first female prime minister of Denmark on the television series Borgen – became the European Commission's commissioner for competition in 2014. She continued her oversight of competition policy after becoming executive vice president of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age in 2019.

During her first two terms, the Danish politician tangled with top US tech giants – including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Qualcomm – as well as European firms like France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens AG.

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