EU Ministers to Vote on New Antitrust Rules

Europe’s antitrust control is set for a radical makeover that will change the way companies, courts and countries do business across the 15-nation European Union.

The new rules affecting cartels and abuse of dominance will be voted on by EU ministers when they meet Tuesday.

It is a sensitive area that includes probes into Microsoft Corp.’s alleged abuse of power, and price-fixing conspiracies that have prompted fines of hundreds of millions of euros.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will complement the new rules by voting Dec. 11 on a separate package of reforms overhauling the merger process in Europe. The two packages are unconnected.

At present, companies file notices with the commission to make certain their partnerships with rivals and others are within antitrust law. The new rules would do away with such reviews, but at the same time would give the bloc’s member states and their courts a big role in enforcing community antitrust law.

The new rules also would clarify the authority of the commission to break up a company, if that is necessary to remedy violations of antitrust law. That has not happened yet in Europe.

They also would give authorities the right to raid private homes, with the permission of a national judge, to find materials in antitrust investigations.

Commission officials say the changes are long overdue. The old cartel rules of 1962 were designed to meet the needs of the then-six members.

The commission has gotten bogged down with the rules and matters would become worse in a European Union that will expand to 25 members in 2004. The commission wants to give up responsibility for reviewing company agreements.