ABSTRACT
The European Commissioner in charge of applying competition policy in Brussels is a familiar one in boardrooms around the world. Global companies investigated for alleged anticompetitive offences include Microsoft, Intel and the Russian energy giant Gazprom. Where breaches of free-competition rules are confirmed, the commission orders changes in commercial practices and policies of the parties concerned, or fines them, or does both. Fines run to millions of euro, or even billions where a group of companies are found to have run a big illegal cartel. EU competition law takes precedence over national law and is directly applicable in member states. It gave the commission jurisdiction over larger-scale company mergers and takeovers affecting more than one member state and exceeding certain thresholds. Government subsidies to either publicly-owned or private firms are normally banned if they distort or threaten to distort competition. The criticism prompted radical reforms to competition policy and law, which came into force on May 1st 2004.
