Margrethe Vestager, the European Union antitrust enforcer who has been the world’s foremost critic of the tech industry, recently walked through her Brussels office wondering what to do with the stuff she had accumulated during a decade in that role, which ends late this month. At one point, she paused to lift a sculpture of a hand holding up its middle finger.
“What should I do with this?” Ms. Vestager, 56, asked. The middle finger, she has said, was a reminder not to let critics get you down.
Ms. Vestager, a Danish politician who was the rare E.U. official to become known globally, has faced plenty of detractors over the years. When she was appointed to police antitrust in 2014, she became one of the first government officials in the world to aggressively bring cases and fines against Google, Apple and Amazon for conducting illegal business practices and trying to block competition.
At the time, the U.S. digital titans were growing quickly and were highly popular for their innovations. Ms. Vestager grappled with backlash for her actions, with tech leaders saying she was stymieing Europe’s economy by scaring off start-ups from building in the region. In 2018, President Donald J. Trump reportedly said she “really hates” America.
But as Ms. Vestager closes out her era in Brussels, regulating the tech industry has become more mainstream around the world. Thanks to her, Europe is now widely seen as the pioneer of the toughest laws against tech. U.S. regulators have in recent years followed Europe by bringing antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Meta and Amazon. Regulators in South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Canada and elsewhere are also taking on the tech giants.
“It is extremely satisfying,” Ms. Vestager told The New York Times, adding that she cried when the European Union’s highest court gave her an unexpected victory in August in a protracted tax-avoidance case against Apple. “People thought that we were crazy because 10 years ago, Big Tech was untouchable. They were the most admired, the most innovative, the most promising companies that you could think of.”