Source: Politico EU

EU competition chief Teresa Ribera told reporters in Strasbourg on 16 September 2026 that she would consider allowing artificial intelligence companies more scope to coordinate on safety measures without necessarily breaching antitrust law, but that no formal request from firms has yet been received. She said regulators would need to “dive into” any such proposal if it arrived and noted that EU rules already permit rivals to work together in public‑interest cases provided conditions are spelled out and authorities are notified. The extracted text records Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s public pitch for leading labs to agree on common safety standards and “limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress,” a proposal quickly backed by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Demis Hassabis and Satya Nadella. The piece also records that companies face a general prohibition on coordinating with competitors on price, quality or other sales parameters, with the risk of multi‑billion‑euro fines for antitrust breaches.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told European lawmakers in her State of the Union address that developers of frontier systems had urged slowing “self‑recursive models,” and she said she would invite the main frontier labs for discussions on pacing the technology. The Commission’s spokesperson said Brussels monitors all digital sectors, including AI, and is ready to engage if companies approach it about coordination on safety. The extract further records mixed reactions in the United States: Federal Trade Commission chair Andrew Ferguson warned (as a personal view) that firms seeking antitrust exemptions might be seeking barriers to entry to protect incumbency, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opposed industry requests for liability protection, saying creators should be liable for what they build and generate. Reporting originated from Strasbourg and Brussels and the article notes updated reporting credits.