Yale economics professor Fiona Scott Morton, a tech lobbyist who earlier worked for the DOJ, won’t be working for Europe’s top antitrust regulator after all.
Scott Morton, who served as chief economist of the Justice Department’s antitrust division from May 2011 to December 2012, was named last week to serve as chief economist of the European Commission ’s Directorate General for Competition.
The European Commission’s antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager Wednesday morning tweeted Scott Morton’s letter to her declining the post.
Her appointment drew protests from EU business and political leaders, in particular from French President Emmanuel Macron, and its business federation MEDEF.
Critics pointed to Scott Morton’s earlier lobbying work for American big tech companies including Apple and Amazon, and her work in DOJ enforcement that heavily sanctioned EU companies, particularly BNP-Paribas and Airbus.
“Given the political controversy that has arisen because of the selection of a non-European to fill this position, and the importance that the Directorate-General has the full backing of the European Union as it enforces, I have determined that the best course of action is for me to withdraw and not take up the Chief Economist position,” Scott Morton wrote to Vestager.
Vestager said she accepted Scott Morton’s decision “with regret.”
