European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is due to announce new draft rules for the digital sector on 2 December and then she will have to get the thumbs up from member countries and the European Parliament who have their own ideas.

Last week she said she would propose new powers for enforcers to tackle market failures in digital markets and to stop new ones from emerging.

Vestager told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagzeitung newspaper which is apparently not a trade mag for sausage makers, that she did not think breaking up the companies would be needed, although the European Union could use this step in an extreme case.

“It will never come to that. Up until now we haven’t had any cases that could lead to such a move.”

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton has said the proposed rules include forcing tech giants to break up or sell some of their European operations if their market dominance is deemed to threaten the interests of customers and smaller rivals.