Margrethe Vestager

“Consumers depend on us to make sure that competition is fair and open, and it's my responsibility to make that happen.”

“I've asked myself what is the worst thing that can happen if I take this decision and go along with it. Very often, I find that the worst thing that can happen is something that I can live with. And if that's the case, I will do it.”

“I get all my U.S. politics from 'The Daily Show.'”

“You can be big, and you can be successful, but you cannot abuse your power to stop others from challenging you from being the next big thing in five or ten years.”

“I think it's a completely good thing to want to do business, to want to make money and be a success in the marketplace, to get the attention of customers. I'm not in the business of pointing fingers or blaming companies, but there is a limit to everything.”

“History shows the power-grab in every religion once it gets organised. And then it's people making you do things that you don't agree with and setting the rules. But it does mean something to me to believe that we are not alone - the human animal is quite a scary thing, left on its own.”

“In Europe, we don't only take offence when one company is treating another company in a way that's illegal. We also look at if governments are joining up with companies that makes it more difficult for other companies. We also see that sometimes government actions can make it very difficult for businesses to compete on their merits.”

“Where I grew up, it was a very open home.”

“When I was very young, I took no interest in party politics. My line of interest was how can you be part of an influence to the society that you live in.”

“You have to teach your algorithm what it can do and what it cannot do because, otherwise, there is a risk that the algorithms will learn the tricks of the old cartels.”

“On Amazon, you find retailers that want Amazon to do part of their services. Those, you don't find to the same degree on Google Shopping. On Google Shopping, you find sort of the bigger brands, those who want to have the customer relationship themselves - the data, the payment details, the search patterns.”

“I know what I need. I don't want people to tell me what I need.”

“We would completely delegitimise what we are doing if we allow politics to interfere with our work.”

“We have to take our democracy back. We cannot leave it to Facebook or Snapchat or anyone else. We have to take democracy back and renew it. Society is about people and not about technology.”

“It's not in my mission to work against Euroskepticism; it's my mission to work for fair markets. In antitrust, what is at stake is, in some ways, as old as Adam and Eve because it is about greed, to get more.”

“Very often, I think about the people that I represent. I meet people who have thousands and thousands of employees and millions and millions of customers - and also make a lot of money. But I think about the millions of Europeans that I represent in order to try to balance that so we can meet on more equal terms.”

“Ours was a never a 'religious' religious home because my parents thought of religion as something you do: it's the way you engage in the local community. That has meant a lot to me.”

“When we do merger rulings, we have strict deadlines: 25 days. It is extremely intensive, and you must decide how you can do it before your spouse says, 'You know I still love you, but please spend some more time at home.'”

“It's my impression that investment in Europe is done for the right reasons. Europe is a very good place to do business; it's a large market.”

“I have learned that European politics is very much like Danish politics. You have all the rumours.”