As the English say, it is “out”. Fiona Scott Morton, Professor of Economics at Yale University, chosen by the Commission as chief economist of the Competition Directorate General, has thrown in the towel, taking note of “the political controversies” generated once her appointment was leaked and she resigned from the position, dragged down by the controversies.
Fiona Scott Morton is a proven academic, having worked for the Barack Obama administration. Her name had received support from Nobel Prize winner Bengt Holmstrom or former IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard. But she, too, had received criticism on several fronts. Five commissioners (including the Spanish Josep Borrell) had asked in a letter to reassess the decision. A group of various platforms, and NGOs had also expressed their skepticism about it. They accused Fiona Scott Morton of a conflict of interest for having advised companies such as Apple, Amazon or Microsoft, which tend to fall precisely on the Commission’s radar due to their anti-competitive practices.
This prestigious academic is against chopping up big tech companies
But the biggest obstacles came from France, which frowned upon a US citizen pulling the strings on business affairs in Brussels. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, showed his hostility to the proposal and came to wonder why there was not a suitable European for the position. The newspaper the world called the Fiona Scott Morton affair “shocking”.
The competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, had even asked to force some change in the rules so that a US citizen could access such a sensitive position. Even Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who is in charge of human resources, admitted in this regard that it was “a request that was unusual although legally possible.” But in the end the play did not work out. To these objections of a legal and political nature, there are others of an economic nature, which perhaps help to better understand the powder keg that has been created, just when the EU is finalizing its directive on digital markets .
In an interview she had with this newspaper last November, Fiona Scott Morton explained her ideas on competition policies. From there it is also better understood the rejection that it could have generated in certain sectors in Brussels.
For example, he said that forcing technology companies to sell their assets (breaking up the companies) would be unhelpful. “If we sell you the Google search engine now you would be the search engine of the monopoly. What good would that do?” A position that could have irritated the sectors in favor of a more hard line against the North American Big Tech. She was also not in favor of issuing fines, because she considered that their deterrent effect was modest since the sanction “does not help to achieve competition, because you have to stop doing what you did.”
Fiona was a supporter of liberalizing access to apps on devices and defending consumer privacy. “When the platform can find out through the data that you broke up with your boyfriend and then wants to sell you makeup or ice cream to keep you from getting depressed, or it can find out that you have a gambling addiction and send you gambling ads…” A legitimate concern, but one that will have to be addressed from other offices outside of Europe.
