The EU ordered that US chipmaker Broadcom suspend its exclusive deal with six TV set-top boxes and modem manufacturers because the contract includes monopolistic terms.

According to the British Financial Times reported on October 16, antitrust investigations against Broadcom are still in progress, and such orders are called “temporary measures.” Now, Broadcom must terminate the transaction for three years, unless the EU investigation is over, and the investigation usually takes several years.

Europe’s recent censorship of US technology giants is becoming increasingly strict. This interim measure against Broadcom is also the first time EU regulators have used this power since 2001.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager oversees the EU’s regulatory approach to Silicon Valley. According to the Wall Street Journal report on the same day, Vestager said on October 16 that if no action is taken, the terms of the contract between Broadcom and the six major customers will “seriously and irreversibly damage the competition”. She cited anti-competition clauses in TV set-top box and modem chip contracts, including exclusive deals and rebates.

In June 2019, Vestager said that if there is a basis for investigation, she will issue a ban on Broadcom. At the same time, Broadcom said that the investigation had no basis.

After the EU’s ban was issued that day, Broadcom said it would abide by it and appealed to the committee’s ban.

A Broadcom spokesperson said: “We believe these terms have no material impact on whether customers choose to purchase Broadcom products.”

There is a view that the European Commission should use its temporary power more frequently, because the formal competition investigation process will take years, and if left unchecked, any monopolistic behavior may cause permanent damage to the market before the authority makes a judgment. For “temporary measures,” Vestager said it is a “fast and efficient way to enforce competition rules, especially in fast-growing markets.”

According to the Financial Times, Ms. Vestager admits that her previous method of fines billions of dollars for large technology companies usually did not help, because the companies had already crushed their competitors and established a solid position for a long time before the punishment measures came.

The order for Broadcom is the first time the EU has used interim measures in 18 years. Activists have long called on the EU to adopt this approach against Google. If the EU Competition Commission successfully adopted interim measures through the European Court of Justice, this approach could be used by other Silicon Valley companies.

Margrethe Vestager is about to start a rare second five-year term in December 2019. Now she is both an EU competition commissioner and a leader in EU digital policy.

Vestager said that the move against Broadcom is not to say that her department has a series of cases that are “lined up” waiting for temporary measures. “But this means the tools are already on the table.”

Vestager’s positive attitude towards antitrust has previously caused severe criticism from US President Donald Trump. Trump accused her of “hate” the United States and described her as “maybe worse than anyo