25 Amendments of Nils TORVALDS related to 2018/2102(INI)
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission Report on Competition Policy 2017 and the Commission’s activities and efforts to ensure the effective application of competition rules in the Union;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Appreciates the efforts made by the Commission and Commissioner Vestager to ensure proper information sharing and regular exchanges with the Parliament concerning competition policy; calls on the Commission to maintain a close cooperation with the members of the Parliament's competent committee;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Calls on the Commission to continue monitoring the implementation of directives linked to the completion of the single market and to ensure the full enforcement of EU competition rules in order to avoid uneven application thereof in the Member States;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1c. Notes that most decisions concerning antitrust issues and State aid are taken at national level; believes therefore that the Commission should monitor and take measures to ensure consistent policy measures within the internal market
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1d. Welcomes the truck cartel investigation; takes positive note of the fact that the Commission did not only look at the impact of the cartel between big truck makers on prices of trucks but also sanctioned the fact that they worked together to delay the introduction of cleaner trucks;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Considers that the treaty-based competition rules must be interpreted in the light of the wider European values underpinning the Union’s social market economy, notably environmental and social protection, equality considerations, consumer protection and public health, as mandated by Article 7 TFEU; takes the view, therefore, that activities which cause negative social and environmental externalities create market distortions that need to be addressed by means of competition law while, conversely, activities which bring social or environmental benefits should be explicitly taken into account when assessing treaty-based competition provisionsfully complied with;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Recalls that taxation is a national competence; notes however that the taxation instrument can be used to grant implicit State aid to companies, which can create an un-level playing field on the internal market;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. UTakes positive note of the potential of innovation in the data-driven economy; underlines however the urgent need for an effective framework tailored to the challenges of the data-driven economy; notes in particular that digital platforms, in controlling ever-increasing data flows, generate considerable network externalities and economies of scale, and ultimately, by dint of excessive concentration, rent extraction and abusive market power, bring about market failures;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Points out that the personal data some online platforms have access to can increase the risk of abuse of a dominant position; calls on the Commission to take this imbalance and access to personal data into account when interpreting the possible abuse of dominant position of online platforms;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes that there is no trade-off between competition and innovation, nor between competition and investments and that effective competition is the best way to foster investments while ensuring innovation and high quality services for end-users at affordable prices;
Amendment 71 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Calls on the Commission to take more ambitious steps to eliminate illegitimate obstacles to online competition, in order to ensure barrier- free online shopping for EU consumers purchasing from sellers who are based in another Member State, while at the same time not creating new barriers caused by existing variations in consumer law;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission, in this regard, to adjudge the control of data necessary for the creation and provision of services as a proxy for the existence of market power, including when issuing its guidance on Article 102 TFEU, and to require interoperability between online platforms and social network providers; requests that the Commission provide a dedicated chapter ontake these issues into account in its next annual report on competition policy, including case studies on price caps in sectors such as online platforms for accommodation and tourism;
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that the jurisdictional thresholds setting the starting point for an EU merger review, which are based on the turnovers of the target and acquiring entities, are not always appropriate for the digital economy, in which value is often, for advertising purposes, represented by the number of visitors to a website; suggests that these thresholds could be revised and adapted to the number of consumers impacted by mergers and the value of the related transactions;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines the fact that barriers to entry in some areas of the digital economy are becoming increasingly insurmountable, as the more that unjust behaviour is perpetuated, the harder it gets to revert to anti-competitive effects; affirms, in this regard, that the Commission should make effective use of interim measures, while ensuring due process and the right of defence of undertakings under investigation;
Amendment 132 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Points to thCalls on Commission to examine possible discrepancies between the rules on state aid in the area of liquidation aid and the resolution regime under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD); points out that in two recent cases, in spite of the Single Resolution Board’s (SRB) concluurges the Commissions that resolution could not be justified on the grounds of public interest, the Commission approved state aid on the basis that it would mitigate economic disturbance at a regional level, thereby demonstrating two distinct interpreo come forward with a transparent presentations of public interest; urges the Commission, therefore, to reconsider its interpretation of the relevant state aid rules in a manner consistent with the BRRD and to revise its 2013 Banking Communication accordingly, including the area of liquidation aidits interpretation of the relevant state aid rules in relation to the BRRD;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Reiterates its request for the Commission to examine whether banking institutions have, since the onset of the crisis, benefited from implicit subsidies and state aid through the provision of liquidity support from central banks; recalls the commitment made by Commissioner Vestager at the structured dialogue with Parliament’s ECON committee in November 2017 to reflect on possible distortions of competition arising from the ECB’s Corporate Sector Purchase Programme and to report back with a qualitative answer;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Underlines the distortive effect State aid can have on the functioning of the internal market; recalls the strict requirements for the application of Article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU)
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Is deeply alarmed at the far- reachingTakes note of the concentration of the food supply chain, whereby four companies, all with close financial ties, own and sell up to 60 % of the global seed market and 75 % of global pesticides, to the detriment of consumers, farmers, the environment and biodiversity alike; points out that such an oligopoly will make farmers even more technologically and economically dependent on a few globally integrated one-stop-shop platforms, produce limited seed diversity, re-direct trends in innovation away from the adoption of a production model which is respectful of the environment and biodiversity and ultimately, as a result of reduced competition, generate less; stresses in this regard the need for fair competition and more innovation;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Welcomes the approach taken by the Commission when they are assessing horizontal mergers to increasingly focus on innovation competition, particularly in mergers involving R&D intensive markets
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Asks the Commission to come forward with a revisionew of the EU Merger Regulation, so that it may and analyse whether it should be vested with the powers, much as a number of Member States are at present, to adopt measures to protect the European public order and the rights and principles of the TFEU and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including environmental protection;
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Reminds the Commission to safeguard the competitiveness of the entire EU industry, including SMEs, when looking at industrial mergers
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Recognises that the legally binding commitments undertaken by the Member States as part of the Paris Climate Agreement will not be realised without concrete state measures to promote and finance, enable and create incentives for the production and use of renewable energy; takes note of the forthcoming revision of the guidelines on state aid and energy, which will no longer exclude two of the sectors that benefit the most from state subsidies, nuclear energy and fossil fuel extraction, and which provide for greater flexibility for consumer-generated renewable energy;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Stresses the importance of endowing competition authorities with sufficient resources to carry out their work; underlines the need for adequate financial and human resources in the Commission Directorate-General for Competition as well as in the national competent authorities; supports, in this connection, the proposed competition strand of the single market programme under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF);
Amendment 216 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Stresses the need to deepen the internal market, to open up for new competition and freedom of establishment in all sectors;