Editing European Union (section)

==== Competition and consumer protection ====
{{Main|European Union competition law|European consumer law}}
{{See also|European Union Intellectual Property Office}}

The EU operates a [[European Union competition law|competition policy]] intended to ensure undistorted competition within the single market.<ref group="lower-alpha">Article 3(1)(g) of the Treaty of Rome</ref> In 2001 the commission for the first time prevented a merger between two companies based in the United States ([[General Electric]] and [[Honeywell]]) which had already been approved by their national authority.<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 July 2001 |title=The Commission prohibits GE's acquisition of Honeywell |url=http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/01/939 |access-date=12 November 2007 |publisher=Europa web portal}}</ref> Another high-profile case, [[European Union Microsoft competition case|against Microsoft]], resulted in the commission fining [[Microsoft]] over {{Euro|777}}&nbsp;million following nine years of legal action.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gow |first=David |date=22 October 2007 |title=Microsoft caves in to European Commission |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2007/oct/22/microsoft.microsoft |access-date=12 November 2007 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref>