Activities of Kim VAN SPARRENTAK related to 2021/2185(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on competition policy – annual report 2021
Amendments (21)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Recalls that competition policy is vital to strengthening and ultimately completingproper functioning of the single market in that it provides a fair and level playing field for all market participants, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, enables the growth of innovative businesses and guarantees a high level of consumer protection and choice by increasing variety of goods and services available, not only in terms of lowest price but also in terms of quality features;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Recalls that consumer welfare is and remains an essential aspect of competition policy; underlines in this perspective that consumers’ interests go beyond low prices only and include other aspects such as quality, sustainability, environmental protection, innovation, ethics, fair-trade aspects and long-term societal impacts; adds that a focus on lowest-possible consumer prices only ignores the negative externalities associated with certain types of production;
Amendment 7 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Stresses that EU competition rules shall contribute to the Union’s objectives as defined in Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union; considers that competition rules should not hamper, but promote sustainability goals, including through sustainability agreements, if they benefit consumers;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Recalls that services represent the largest economic activity in the EU in terms of gross added value and that the single market for services lags well behind the single market for goods; highlights the need to address the remaining obstacles to the development of the single market for services, including through the enforcement of competition rul; highlights the need to address the remaining unjustified, disproportionate and discriminatory obstacles to the development of the single market for services, including through the enforcement of competition rules; underlines that services of general economic interest may be subject to specific rules to protect citizens’ access to basic public services; takes note of the ongoing assessment by the Commission of those rules for healthcare and social services;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Urges the Commission to take the general public interests of affordable housing and sustainable urban development into account in the revision of rules on services of general economic interest (SGEI) and State Aid, so as to allow national, regional and local authorities to support housing for all groups, whose needs for decent and affordable housing cannot be easily met under market conditions; recalls that Parliament called on the Commission to adapt the target group definition of social housing in its Resolution of 21 January 2021 on Access to decent and affordable housing for all (2019/2187(INI)); highlights that house prices have seen an annual increase of 6.8 % in the euro area and 7.3 % in the EU in the second quarter of 2021, at a time when many households have seen their income decrease;
Amendment 28 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines that current merger control rules are not fit for dealing with so- called ‘killer acquisitions’ by dominant players in digital markets; stresses the fact that ‘killer acquisitions’ may also affect the contestability and fairness of the digital single market and therefore should be assessed by the Commission in the framework of the DMA, as set out in IMCO’s reporthave a detrimental effect on consumer choice; calls for a mandatory opinion of the European Data Protection Board in case of concentrations involving one or more operators in the digital sector on the relevance of datasets for the intended concentration, the personal data that the target acquisition processes and the potential impact on the rights to privacy and data protection that the intended concentration has;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Emphasizes the characteristics of digital markets, such as the role, aggregation and use of data, multi-sided markets, direct and indirect network effects, multihoming, non-monetary switching costs other than pricing, such as the network users have built up, learning costs and users’ platform specific reputation or ratings; underlines that the power that digital players have over consumers, which is driven by the role of data and the role of direct and indirect network effects, is currently not reflected in traditional market definitions, which often focus mainly on pricing and profits, such as the small but significant and non- transitory increase in price (SSNIP) test; welcomes the review of the market definition notice to better assess digital markets and urges the Commission to take non-monetary factors into account when defining digital markets and positions of power on such markets, such as switching costs other than pricing, and also when assessing market power, such as power over consumers, potential impact on fundamental rights, privacy and data protection and potential impact on society and democracy.
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Stresses the importance of helping consumers and users to gain greater control over the use of their data and calls for a high level of protection of personal data; calls in this regard for clear rules on data sharing that do not undermine consumers’ rights to data protection and privacy and allow them to effectively take control of their data; underlines the crucial role of interoperability in lowering switching costs in digital markets and increasing consumer welfare by consumer choice, including the choice for more privacy-friendly, sustainable or social alternatives;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4 c. Emphasizes that the lack of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) enforcement in Ireland benefits a small number of large digital platforms competitively by tolerating privacy breaches for data collection and thus increasing data concentration;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4 d. Notes that large digital players use their market power, power over consumers, large financial resources and data concentration in one market to leverage into another; stresses that small players cannot compete with aforementioned factors, which makes European citizens even more dependent on the same small number of companies and endangers strategic autonomy; calls for increased scrutiny of the leveraging of dominant positions in digital sectors into other sectors, taking these factors into account, instead of solely focusing on the digital markets or sectors in the review of merger scrutiny;
Amendment 38 #
5. Notes that the consumer Internet of Things (IoT) sector will expand significantly in the coming years but recognises that shortcomings still exist in this sector, such as the lack of interoperability between various IoT products and/or services, which could reduce competition and consumer choice; welcomes the Commission’s sector inquiry into the IoT and calls on the Commission to take further action regarding standards, data portability and access; emphasizes in this regard that open source software and open data principles are crucial to ensure fair competition and allow for innovation;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation1 and related Vertical Guidelines2 have been inadequately adapted for recent market developments, notably the growth of online sales and online platforms; highlights that there are outstanding concerns regarding the automobile sector, where manufacturers are competing directly with the distribution network by modifying the contractual terms of the vertical distribution relationship, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage and driving small and medium-sized enterprises out of the market; stresses that the digitalisation of the automotive sector raises also concerns in terms of competition due to third-party service providers lacking access to interfaces and in-vehicle data that is controlled by the vehicle’s manufacturers; _________________ 1 Commission Regulation (EU) No 330/2010 of 20 April 2010 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices (OJ L 102, 23.4.2010, p. 1). 2 OJ C 130, 19.5.2010, p. 1.
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Amendment 51 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Notes the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the EU economy and the risks and opportunities it poses to the internal market; welcomes the Commission’s decision to prolong the temporary framework for State aid until 30 June 2022, but highlights that these measures should remain in place until gross domestic product and employment return to pre-pandemic leveltemporary; adds that state aid guaranteed under these extraordinary circumstances should help promoting competitiveness and safeguarding jobs, while not putting into question consumers’ rights;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Takes note that 80,1% of State aid approved was notified by only 3 Member States, with 51.5%only for Germany; calls on the Commission to assess the impact of this high concentration of State aid on the internal market;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7 b. Deplores that no green conditioning was attached to the 670 decisions approving €3 trillion of state aid under the temporary framework; regrets in particular that more than 40 decisions allowed state aid to airlines, airports and ground handling companies without requiring these companies to adopt transition plans toward more sustainable business models;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 c (new)
Paragraph 7 c (new)
7 c. Reiterates that it is crucial to ensure policy coherence by setting the right competition rules to foster the right investment incentives; welcomes the process launched by the Commission to reflect on the role that competition policy can play to support the green, digital transitions as well as the EU industrial strategy; takes note in this regard of the State Aid Guidelines for Climate, Environmental Protection and Energy that have been released in December 2021; welcomes that the guidelines acknowledge that measures that directly or indirectly involve support to fossil fuels, in particular the most polluting ones, often have negative environmental externalities on the market; stresses that therefore those measures should never receive a positive assessment; stresses that where efforts to price in negative externalities already exist, such as in the Emission Trading System, competition policy should support these efforts and not counteract them;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 d (new)
Paragraph 7 d (new)
7 d. Underlines that competition policy must be in line with the priorities outlined in the European Green Deal and the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Union’s climate and biodiversity targets; stresses the need for a horizontal obligation to assess the environmental impact of all state aid;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 e (new)
Paragraph 7 e (new)
7 e. Notes that if enterprises come together to set minimum standards with regard to environmental standards and social conditions, they must not be limited by competition law, if it contributes to environmental and social goals and benefits consumers; emphasizes that the horizontal guidelines on the application of Article 101(3) TFEU should be revised, in order to provide further guidance on collaborations which “contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit" in light of the Green Deal, where, in particular, environmental and social benefits should be taken into account, as well as long-term benefits which can be expected to arise when companies jointly set minimum standards;
Amendment 60 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
Amendment 74 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Adds that in order to ensure a level playing field in the single market and in global context, measures to effectively address social, environmental and fiscal dumping are needed; calls therefore on the Commission to establish an ambitious legal framework to verify compliance with social, environmental and human rights’ requirements as under EU law and international conventions;