"Like other antitrust agencies, we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do"
About this Quote
The second sentence is the real payload. Naming “the Justice Department and the FTC” isn’t courtesy; it’s a mirror held up to Washington. Monti borrows American self-mythology about rule-based markets to immunize the European Commission (or any non-U.S. enforcer) against charges of anti-American bias. The subtext reads: if you trust your own agencies when they block or condition deals affecting U.S. markets, you have no principled basis to delegitimize ours when we do the same.
Context matters: Monti’s era as European Competition Commissioner coincided with headline-grabbing clashes over mega-mergers and Big Tech-like dominance before “Big Tech” was the term. U.S. politicians and executives often treated European scrutiny as extraterritorial meddling. Monti reframes it as symmetry, not intrusion: jurisdiction is defined by effects, and global firms choose to operate across borders, so they choose to be judged across borders.
It’s also a subtle claim to equal sovereignty. Europe isn’t asking permission; it’s asserting that competition law is one of the few levers democracies still have to discipline concentrated private power in integrated markets.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Monti, Mario. (2026, February 18). Like other antitrust agencies, we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-other-antitrust-agencies-we-make-our-72680/
Chicago Style
Monti, Mario. "Like other antitrust agencies, we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-other-antitrust-agencies-we-make-our-72680/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Like other antitrust agencies, we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/like-other-antitrust-agencies-we-make-our-72680/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
