Chillin'Competition

For this third edition of the Friday Slot, Antoine Winckler (Cleary Gottlieb, Brussels) has taken a shot at our questions. I met Antoine five years ago at a conference on “Non-competition concerns under the EUMR”. He made a great impression and since then, with my competition friends, we refer to him as the “Tribun”. A full biography of Antoine can be found here.  I also know for a fact that Antoine reads our blog regularly.  It is a great honor that he took the time to answer to our questions.

“Oscar” of the best competition law book?  And of the best non-competition law book?

Judge Bork’s  Antitrust Paradox

Boccacio’s Decamerone

“Oscar” of the best case-law development in the past year? “Oscar” of the worst case-law development?

Worst : CJEU, C 439/09, Pierre Fabre Dermo-Cosmétique SAS v Président de l’Autorité de la concurrence and Ministre de l’Économie, de l’Industrie et de l’Emploi (another move away from the effects theory)

Best:  Advocate General Sharpston’s Opinion in CJEU, C-389/10 P, KME v. Commission

Let’s do it like economists => assume that you could change 3 rules, principles, judgments, institutions in the current EU competition system. What would you do?

I would transform DG COMP into an EU Prosecutor and give the General Court the power to make all antitrust decisions (but only after making sure judges have all followed economics 1.01).

Average working time/week?

When does work really stop?

Why do you work in competition law? How did you first get into it?

You get to work with non-lawyers a lot.

I really wanted to work in Brussels – just kidding.

Most interesting, intense or funny moment of your career?

Watching Judge Vesterdorf being shown a streamed James Bond movie (James Bond in his Aston Martin) during the Microsoft v Commission hearing.

Hearing my learned colleague/partner/dear friend Mario Siragusa and his opponent Antonino Abate from the Legal Service – both pure Sicilians – plead a State-aid case in re-invented French.

Your role model (if any) in the competition community? And outside of it?

Don Holley and Mario Siragusa (my mentors at Cleary)

Winston Churchill

What do you like the least about your job?

Difficult clients

What do you like the most about your job?

Difficult clients

What you like the most about economics in competition law?

Finding an economist coming up with the right answer

What you like the least about economics in competition law?

Economists who repeat what lawyers say

What career/personal achievement are you most proud of?

Having had fun (most of time) working

A piece of “counterfactual” analysis: what would you do if you weren’t in your current position?

Teaching philosophy/literature/history or riding horses

Besides being a “competition geek” (sorry for this one, but we all are), what are your hobbies?

Philosophy and horses

Favorite movies?

Gilda, The Night of the Iguana, Hitchcock and Marx Brothers generally

Favorite music style in general?

Opera

Your favorite motto?

Work is the curse of the drinking classes (Oscar Wilde)

Websites that you visit the most (besides Chillin’Competition)?

Google of course

A piece of advice for junior competition professionals?

Have fun