Neelie Kroes, the former European Competition Commissioner who recently joined Uber’s public policy advisory board, says that laws should be brought up to date to incorporate market disrupting companies like Uber.
“Legislation should be proactive,” Kroes told FORBES in an interview. “We are facing a disruptive economy. It’s completely different from what we are used to.”
Kroes was appointed as a new advisors to Uber’s international advisory board in early May and had her first meeting with the board soon afterwards. She said the board was “completely free” to offer advice on Uber’s public policy matters when they felt an issue needed addressing, or when Uber asked for advice. “I have very impressive colleagues so I can assure you that with this team it would make sense to listen to our thoughts,” she said.
Kroes was speaking on the sidelines of Startup Fest Europe, a gathering of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Amsterdam who listened to speeches from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt and Uber chief Travis Kalanick.
“I’m grateful he came over,” said Kroes, whose public-private initiative Startup Delta organised the conference.
One venture capitalist who attended the conference described it as “Neelie’s goodbye party,” alluding to her departure from public policy work in late 2014 and grand entrance into the private sector by joining boards for Uber and Salesforce.
Kroes, 75, is perhaps best known for spearheading the European Commission’s protracted antitrust battle against Microsoft in the mid-2000’s. That led to a $1.4 billion fine against the company in 2008, till then the largest imposed by the EU on a single company in an antitrust case.
Kroes’ hard negotiating tactics with then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer led to the nickname “Steelie Neelie” back then, but now that she’s on the other side of the table, she said she doesn’t plan to play hardball with regulators.
“We have to think over that our society is completely is changing,” she said. “So with a changing society and with the opportunities again that are available, we have to take into account that those instruments – legislation is an instrument – is not a goal in itself. That that should be up to date.”