BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - European Union authorities, which recently imposed hefty fines on chipmaker Intel and utilities E.ON and GDF Suez, intend to increase pressure on these sectors, the EU's antitrust chief said on Friday.
The European Commission, tasked with ensuring fair play in the 27-country European Union, will also target erring drugmakers and transport companies that breach EU antitrust rules, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.
"You will see us continuing to look deeply at key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, energy, transport and technology," she said in the text of a speech to be delivered at an Irish think tank in Dublin. Kroes levied a total of 1.1 billion euros ($1.55 billion) in fines on E.ON and GDF Suez last week, the first antitrust penalties on European utilities, for secretly carving up national gas markets.
This followed a 1.06 billion euro penalty on Intel in May for illegal efforts to squeeze out archrival AMD, marking the biggest antitrust fine on a single company. Kroes last week signalled her determination to crack down on drugmakers suspected of fixing deals with generics producers to hold back cheap medicines, saying probes were under way.
The Commission is investigating privately owned French drugmaker Servier and a number of generics firms over the issue.
"We would do no favours to the economy by going soft on enforcement. If anything, anti-competitive activities, such as cartels, hurt consumers and the economy more in the bad times," Kroes said in her speech. "We will not hesitate to take action where there is clear evidence of a problem," she said. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Dale Hudson)