Chillin'Competition

Financial services, including banking and payments, have been one of the preferred areas of enforcement on the part of the European Commission in recent times. The cases that have taken place in this area have moreover raised a variety of peculiar challenges and issues on which we have commented on this blog and that cannot be found in other sectors: there have been two sector enquiries, landmark “object-not object” cases (Cartes Bancaires; see here), effects-cases including a 101(3) assessment (Mastercard; see here), various commitment decisions (see here), infringement decisions related to 101 – including cartel decisions imposing record-breaking fines in hybrid settlement scenarios- as well as to 102 (i.e. the Standard & Poor’s and Thomson Reuters cases dealing with the issue of access to information necessary for securities trading). All very rare as you can see, and this in only a teaser.

Those interested in a comprehensive discussion on these issues should attend the upcoming ERA’s Workshop on Application of EU Competition Rules in Banking and Financial Services, to be held in Brussels on 3 June. It will feature three top-notch speakers, and then me.

The programme is the following:

– 14:15 Competition issues in the cards and e-payments sector

Alfonso Lamadrid (Garrigues); Cédric Nouel de Buzonniere (DG Competition’s Payment Systems Unit)

– 15:00 Questions and discussion

– 15:30 Trading platforms and competition

James Modrall (Norton Rose)

– 16:00 Questions and discussion

– 16:30 Coffee break

– 17:00 Competition issues with benchmarks and indexes

Viktor Bottka (European Commission’s Legal Service)

To register, click here.