Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Row over EU official considering Microsoft job

An EU official set to head the European Commission's antitrust case against Microsoft is instead considering a job with a consultancy that counts Microsoft as one of its major clients.

Frenchman Henri Piffaut was this week chosen to take over in October as head of the unit handling the Microsoft antitrust case and other high profile technology cases, sources told Reuters.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

But Mr Piffaut has also asked for leave from the commission after being offered a senior role at LECG – a global economic consultancy that advises Microsoft on antitrust issues and which goes with the motto "the expert inside".

"A request for leave on personal grounds has been made [by Mr Piffaut] but no decision has yet been made on that request," commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

He also added that officials who left the commission or took personal leave must agree to strict measures so that there is no conflict of interest in their work.

Managing director of LECG's Brussels office, Atilano Jorge Padilla, confirmed to the Times that he was trying to hire Mr Piffaut, but that it was for his expertise in merger economics rather than anti-trust work.

Mr Piffaut would lead the economists in the Brussels office, and help hire additional staff, Mr Padilla said.

The EU executive office has been locked in a dispute with Microsoft for years over its widely used operating system Windows, with the commission accusing the firm of obstructing rival software firms like Adobe and IBM from running software through Windows.

Brussels fined in March 2004 the software giant nearly €500 million and another €281 million in July this year for ignoring the first order.

If you can't beat them, join them

The case is similar to a 2002 case when EU official Detlef Eckert, who worked as a head of unit and had interviewed a number of Microsoft rivals who complained about the software giant's behaviour, was allowed to work for Microsoft itself.

Last spring, environmental group Greenpeace addressed four cases of "revolving doors" between the commission and the chemicals industry together with its lobby groups.

In its report on the working of the EU chemicals law REACH, Greenpeace pointed out that people working in the commission cross the border to the industry or its lobby groups and vice versa.

EU antitrust chief slaps historic fine on Microsoft

US software giant Microsoft has said it will appeal against a hefty €280.5 million fine imposed by the European Commission on Wednesday, after Brussels found the firm is still ring fencing its Windows system from competition.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

Podcast

Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza

This week's Euroscopic explores the consequences of Moscow's terror attack, the convergence of public safety and border/migration policy in an EU election year, and the United Nations Security resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

Latest News

  1. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  2. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  3. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  4. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  5. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult
  6. EU unveils plan to create a European cross-border degree
  7. How migrants risk becoming drug addicts along Balkan route
  8. 2024: A Space Odyssey — why the galaxy needs regulating

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us