WE LISTENED to Beebster Peter Day talking to the European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes on Radio 4 yesterday evening.

She’s the one who has set about Microsoft, Intel and latterly, er, Microsoft again for alleged anti-competitive practices.

Kroes said her agenda is not dictated by Euro ministers attempting to influence her hunt for cartels or American companies to fine.

She told Day she’s a “referee” for Europe, and all she wants is the famous “level playing field” and she’s not picking on American companies.

She’s picking on everyone, apparently. One pleader at Clifford Chance, one of a multitude of ambulance chasers based in Brussels, said the EU is the most important and most powerful antitrust authority in the world.

The Bush administration, said this pleader, has retreated from anti-competition. In IT the targets tend to be American companies because they dominate this industry, but this chap from Clifford Chance represents Microsoft competitors so he would say Kroes is even-footed.

The Wall Street Journal’s Kyle Wingfield told Day that EU competition is aggressive and can insert its judgements into the marketplace for consumers better than market forces could. “There’s maybe a bit of a double standard going on here,” said Kyle.

Kroes remains unapologetic. She claims what she’s doing – and she has another two years in her job to run – will benefit the marketplace.

As far as cartels go, she wants companies in cartels to blow the whistle. She also wants “consumers” to blow whistles too. And she said she has had some very congratulatory messages from Americans supporting her investigations into His Excellency the Vole.

If companies blow the whistle on a cartel, that way they get off scott free, while their co-conspirators get busted. She hasn’t got any power to throw people in jail, like they do in America. But she can levy enormous fines. However, the last time we looked, at the DRAM price fixing scam, it wasn’t the top bosses that got sent to clink, it was middle rank executives.

Day asked Microsoft for a statement on the latest investigation – but it wouldn’t reply. So he had to resort on the last statement from the latest investigation – in which Microsoft said it would comply with all such inquiries.

Seventy five per cent of Intel’s business is now outside its home territory. Its competitor is also an American company. Maybe, like we’ve said for years now, Intel should just bite the bullet and produce a wonderful operating system that will really give the Vole some competition. µ

L’INQ

Monopoly Money (radio prog)