The new age of corporate monopolies | Margrethe Vestager
TED Talks Daily
TED
4.1 • 12.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 October 2017
⏱️ 20 minutes
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Summary
Margrethe Vestager wants to keep European markets competitive -- which is why, on behalf of the EU, she's fined Google $2.8 billion for breaching antitrust rules, asked Apple for $15.3 billion in back taxes and investigated a range of companies, from Gazprom to Fiat, for anti-competitive practices. In an important talk about the state of the global business, she explains why markets need clear rules -- and how even the most innovative companies can become a problem when they become too dominant. "Real and fair competition has a vital role to play in building the trust we need to get the best of our societies," Vestager says. "And that starts with enforcing our rules."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This TED Talk features European Union Commissioner for Competition, Margueretta Vestager, recorded live at TED Global NYC 2017. |
| 0:10.8 | Let's go back to 1957. |
| 0:17.1 | Representatives from six European countries had come to Rome to sign the treaty that were to create the European Union. |
| 0:26.6 | Europe was destroyed. A world war had emerged from Europe. |
| 0:34.6 | The human suffering was unbelievable and unprecedented. |
| 0:41.7 | Those men wanted to create a peaceful democratic Europe, |
| 0:50.5 | a Europe that works for its people. |
| 0:59.0 | And one of the many building blocks in that peace project was a common European market. |
| 1:03.0 | Already back then, they saw how markets, when left to themselves, |
| 1:10.0 | can sort of slip into being just a private property |
| 1:14.6 | of big businesses and cartels, |
| 1:18.6 | meeting the needs of some businesses |
| 1:21.6 | and not the needs of customers. |
| 1:25.6 | So from our very first day in 1957, the European Union had rules to defend fair |
| 1:36.3 | competition. And that means competition on the merits, that you compete on the quality of your products, |
| 1:44.0 | the prices you can offer, the services, |
| 1:48.0 | the innovation that you produce. That's competition on the merits. You have a fair chance |
| 1:55.0 | of making it in such a market. And it's my job as commissioner for Competition to make sure that companies who do business in Europe live by those rules. |
| 2:09.6 | But let's take a step back. |
| 2:14.6 | Why do we need rules on competition at all? |
| 2:18.3 | Why not just let businesses compete? |
| 2:22.3 | Isn't that also the best for us if they compete freely, |
... |
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