Chillin'Competition

I have been busy taking planes and trains in October. I have presented at four conferences. Fortunately, they were conveniently placed. Two of them took place on 14-15 October and the other two on 25-26 October. Even more fortunately, the first two were in Florence. That trip never disappoints (if you plan to go in the near future, by the way, make sure to attend Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi – genuinely impressive and moving).

ENTraNCE Annual Conference: On 14 October, I presented at the EUI, in the context of the ENTraNCE project (of which I am a member of the Scientific Committee). As you see from the programme, it sought to provide an overview of some hot topics from a transatlantic perspective.

I presented in the session devoted to merger control, which examined trends in innovation markets. It is a topic that I have followed with interest for a while. And I was lucky that the organisers chose a great format. Essentially, my presentation revolved around series of questions about the role of innovation considerations in merger control analysis. Frederic Jenny and Vicent Verouden addressed these from an economic perspective. Their presentations (see here and here) were insightful and rich in details. The only thing I regret is that Mr Merger Control (aka Carles Esteva Mosso) gave the keynote speech but could not stay for our panel…

20th IBA Annual Competition Conference: …as he had to run to the St Regis to make it to the legendary IBA Competition Conference. I was delighted to be speaking there for the first time (I did not have to run, as I presented on the second day). My panel was devoted to ‘Antitrust in the Online World’. Huge topic made manageable thanks to Kyriakos Fontoukakos and Julian Pena’s efforts.

My intervention focused on two questions: online selective distribution and the regulation of the so-called platforms. On the first point, I argued – as you can see in the slides – that the case law provides a framework to assess emerging issues such as marketplace bans. There is, I would say, nothing really new under the sun. On the second, I identified some of the limits of competition law enforcement – and analysis – in this context.