Thomas Barnett, the head of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division who was recently thrust in the spotlight for his protest of the EU decision to throw out Microsoft’s antitrust appeal, further explained his position during a recent speech at Georgetown University.

First, he praised international anti-cartel enforcement. “Authorities around the world are united in a commitment to pursue hard core anticompetitive conduct,” Barnett said. “With more antitrust enforcement agencies on the beat, cartels run a greater risk of detection.”

Near the end of his speech, however, he discussed the “unduly restrictive standards” resulting from unilateral conduct on antitrust enforcement.

Barnett says these standards “can have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition.”

This is an obvious reference to his remarks immediately following the Court of First Instance’s decision to throw out Microsoft’s appeal (which EU’s antitrust commissioner Neelie Kroes immediately rebuffed).

Barnett claimed after the symposium that his statements were not directly related to the EU’s Microsoft decision.

Philip Verveer, a former Justice Department official, finds that unlikely. “This is an issue that is very current and it is one where our antitrust authorities have increasingly taken the view that single-firm conduct, except in very unusual circumstances, is unlikely to be harmful to consumers,” he said.