The Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) is a

Directorate-General Within the European Union, Directorates-General are departments with specific zones of responsibility, the equivalent of ministries at a national level. Most are headed by a European Commissioner, responsible for the general direction of the Dir ...

of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

, located in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. The DG Competition employs around 850 officials, as well as a number of seconded national officials, among other from national competition authorities. It is responsible for establishing and implementing competition policy for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. DG Competition has a dual role in antitrust enforcement: an investigative role and a decision-making role. DG Competition is also considered to be one of the most sophisticated antitrust enforcers in the world, alongside the US’

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

and the

Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division is a division of the U.S. Department of Justice that enforces U.S. antitrust law. It has exclusive jurisdiction over U.S. federal criminal antitrust prosecutions. It also has jurisdi ...

. Its fines to corporations climbed from €3.4bn between 2000 and 2004, to €9.4bn between 2005 and 2009. Between 2010 and 2012, it totalled €5.4bn. The DG Competition policy areas include the following: * antitrust (agreements and conduct prohibited under Articles 101 and 102 of the

TFEU The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) is one of two treaties forming the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU), the other being the Treaty on European Union (TEU). It was previously known as the Treaty Establishi ...

), * mergers (Commission Regulation (EC) No 802/2004 implementing Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (The "Implementing Regulation") and its annexes (Form CO, Short Form CO and Form RS)), * liberalisation (Article 106 of the

), * state aid - ensuring that government interventions do not distort competition within the EU by selectively benefiting one company or a subset of companies over others (Articles 107 - 109 of the

), * international cooperation. The DG Competition is led by commissioner

Margrethe Vestager Margrethe Vestager (; born 13 April 1968) is a Danish politician currently serving as Executive Vice President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age since December 2019 and European Commissioner for Competition since ...

, who is currently serving a second five-year term ending in 2024, in addition to the position of executive vice president for digital. Ernst Albrecht, future

Minister-President of Lower Saxony The Minister-President of Lower Saxony (german: Ministerpräsident des Landes Niedersachsen), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head of government of the German state of Lower Saxony. The position was created in 1946, when the ...

and father of current

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 an ...

notably held the position.

References

External links

Directorate-General for Competition

Competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

Competition regulators Regulation in the European Union {{EU-stub

See also

References

External links