WRITTEN QUESTION E-3122/02

by Jaime Valdivielso de Cué (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(30 October 2002)

Subject: Boycott of European dot-coms in the United States

For about four months United States companies specialising in both Internet and conventional sales and publicity have been refusing to provide services to European companies selling on-line, in order to prevent them from selling their products in the United States.

The Spanish company Barrabes.com, as well as French and Danish companies which do a large percentage of their business in the United States, have seen their sales slump drastically as a result of this boycott.

The boycott also extends to both United States and European equipment suppliers, who will be unable to meet the orders placed with them this season because of pressures from across the Atlantic.

Similarly, anti-competitive measures are also beginning to surface in the United Kingdom, where advertising for these companies has been surprisingly rejected by specialist publications.

Bearing in mind that dot-coms operate on much more reduced timescales than conventional companies and that, if it takes the Commission years to resolve this dispute, these companies will have suffered irreparable damage, what steps will the Commission take to ensure free competition with an important trading partner such as the United States? What will it do to protect these companies until the dispute is settled? What compensatory measures will be adopted to help companies of this kind?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(7 January 2003)

The Honourable Member refers to a situation where American companies allegedly refuse to provide services to European on-line companies in order to prevent them from selling their products in the United States. In these circumstances European competition rules can not be applied. It is necessary for the applicability of the European competition rules that the anti-competitive behaviour either affects trade between Member States or that a dominant position exists in a substantial part of the common market. Therefore, a possible boycott organised by private companies in the United States and preventing on-line or internet sales by European companies to customers located in the United States does not fall into the jurisdiction of the Commission under the Community competition rules. As regards the reference to anticompetitive measures surfacing in the United Kingdom, the Honourable Member is kindly asked to provide information on the precise nature of the activities in question in order to enable the Commission to assess the situation.

Nevertheless, there may be a trade issue, in terms of access to the United States market: in order to assess such an issue, the Commission would need to know whether there is any government measure involved, which products and services are exactly at stake, what actions have been taken by the European companies under American law. The Commission notes that if there is no government measure involved, it will be difficult to make arguments but this would point further to the need to address competition issues in international forums, in particular in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In this respect, the Honourable Member is also kindly asked to provide information on the precise nature of the activities in question in order to enable the Commission to assess the situation.