European regulators are about to become more political

How should the commission wield its power? The question is increasingly fraught. On the one hand, Europe’s markets appear to be less competitive than in the past. At the turn of the millennium the four largest firms in the average European industry claimed a market share of less than 26%. By 2019 that figure has risen to 31%, with some smaller national markets, including Finland and Hungary, much more concentrated. There is also less change in the composition of the market leaders. On top of this, mark-ups appear to be growing, especially in services and the most digitised industries, where they are up by about 10% in the past two decades.