Information Communication Technologies (ICT)
Overview
The Information and communication technologies sector (ICT) is one of the cornerstones of the Lisbon strategy which aims at improving competitiveness and job creation in the European Union. The provision of ICT goods and services represents between 7 % and 9 % of the EU economy. Around 670,000 enterprises are active in this sector, which employs nearly 6.8 million people.
The importance of the sector for the EU economy is also reflected in the work of the Commission in this area. The Directorate-General for Competition closely monitors the information industry, consumer electronics and internet sectors in order to ensure compliance of market players with EU competition law.
Antitrust
In the recent past, the work of DG Competition has particularly focused on anticompetitive behaviour, that is to say behaviour infringing Article 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty, both in software and hardware markets but also in consumer electronics markets.
One of the main investigations has been the Microsoft case, where it was concluded that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the PC operating system market in violation of Article 82 of the EC Treaty. On 17 September 2007, the European Court of First Instance confirmed that Microsoft had abused its dominant position by: (1) refusing to supply interoperability information to rival server vendors; and (2) tying Windows Media Player to Windows.
In the consumer electronics sector, the Commission found in 2002 that video game maker Nintendo and seven of its distributors had colluded to maintain artificially high price differences across EU Member States that between 1991 and 1998.
The Commission has a number of other significant ongoing cases in the ICT sector. These include its Intel and Rambus investigations, both cases in which the Commission has issued Statements of Objections (see MEMO/07/314 and MEMO/07/330 for further details). In August 2007 the Commission also opened proceedings in a case against Qualcomm (see MEMO/07/389).
The main consideration at stake in the Commission's policy vis-à-vis these sectors is the protection of innovation and consumer choice as well as the preservation of a level playing field. A list of cases dealt with by DG Competition is available in the cases page.
Mergers
The Commission enforced the Merger Regulation in the ICT sector with the aim of preventing effective competition from being hampered by merging companies and with a view to keeping innovation possible. An example of such an approach is in the Commission clearance decision of the joint venture between ST Microelectronics and Intel in the area of flash memory. The investigation in this dynamic industry showed that the market would remain competitive post merger and notably that the development of innovative technologies in this area would not be adversely impacted by the merger.
A list of merger cases dealt with by DG Competition is available in the cases page.
State Aid monitoring
DG Competition monitors State aid to the ICT sector and contributes to the development of State aid policy in this field. State aid is defined as an advantage in any form conferred on a selective basis to undertakings by national public authorities. In view of this definition, a number of measures such as research and development aid or regional aid to ICT companies have to be monitored by DG Competition in order to avoid market distortions. DG Competition also clears aid that is beneficial to consumers, by providing new research grants and encouraging the development of new products, such as open source.
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