[DMCA-Activists] Re: 'No conflict' as MS hires top IT Eurocrat

[Patrizio Menchetti]

On 27 Nov 2002 at 17:27, address@hidden wrote:

> 
> (Forwarded from DMCA Discussion list)
> 
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 12:19:26 +0200 (EET)
> From: Jei <address@hidden>
> 
> 
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28298.html
> 
> 'No conflict of interest,' as MS recruits top Brussels IT
> Eurocrat
> 
> By John Lettice
> Posted: 26/11/2002 at 12:21 GMT
> 
> 
> In a barely-registered coup earlier this month Microsoft
> recruited senior European Commission official Detlef Eckert.
> But that's not a problem - Eckert, who it is understood will
> be joining The Beast on the 1st of December, "has had
> nothing to do with the Microsoft competition case," the FT's
> 'Observer' gossip column tells us, but simply "had
> responsibility to roll out broadband communications."
> 
> Oh really? Although both the Commission and Eckert assured
> the FT there was no possible conflict of interest, the entry
> in the Commission's internal Guide des Services for Eckert's
> unit of DGIS (Directorate General, Information Society)
> includes, in that case, numerous baffling entries.
> 
> Two of the staff reporting to him specifically cover
> "competition cases," and if you include economic analysis
> (some considerable overlap here, surely), then out of a
> total of eleven (excluding support staff), four have posts
> that would appear to have some considerable relevance to
> competition policy. And if they're not doing approximately
> what their job descriptions say, then one wonders what they
> are doing.

I am not a Redmond friend, but to my eyes this approach seems strongly biased. 
Admittedly, I am in a very specific situation of Brussels "old hand", as I 
started as a 
trainee in the Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (then DG IV) 
seventeen years ago, and since then I have been dealing dealing with Brussels 
in all 
my professional career as a lawyer, both in-house and in private practice. I 
inter alia 
have acted as consultant of Dg Comp in telecoms matters as well as to Dg 
Infsoc, and 
to Dg Enterprise. I am also a member of the Legal Advisory Board of Dg Infsoc 
as an 
independent expert. That said, everybody with a minimal understanding of the 
turf 
boundaries (and wars) of the various Directorates-General in the European 
Commission knows that jurisdiction for antitrust matters is with 
Directorate-General for 
Competition and not with Directorate-General Information Society, regardless of 
job 
descriptions.

------------------------------------------------
Patrizio Menchetti
Avvocato
address@hidden
PGP public key available at http://www.menchlaw.it