Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Forthcoming GCLC Lunch Talk on the Energy Sector
The 51th Lunch Talk of the GCLC will be devoted to recent enforcement trends in the energy sector.
The speaker are Céline Gauer (DG Competition) and John Ratliff (WilmerHale ).
It will take place on 18 March 2011 at The Hotel (formerly the Hilton), 38 Boulevard de Waterloo, 1000 Brussels.
See link below for registration form.
51th GCLC Lunch Talk – 18 March 2011
Upcoming competition law seminars in Madrid
The level of the Annual EU and Spanish Competition Law course directed by Luis Ortiz in Madrid keeps getting better each year (and it´s now on its 14th edition..). It really is hard to find a program with so many excellent speakers participating on it. Let me give you an example:
The seminar which took place last week was coordinated by Cecilio Madero (Director General at DG COMP), and focused on novelties in the areas of mergers and abusive conduct. Amongst the speakers were Per Helmström (Head of Unit at DG COMP), Nicholas Banasevic (Deputy Head of Unit), Milan Kristof (Référendaire at the ECJ), Ainhoa Veiga (Partner, Araoz y Rueda), Antonio Guerra (Counsel, Uría Menéndez), Juan Jiménez-Laiglesia (Partner, DLA Piper) and Miguel Odriozola (Partner, Clifford Chance).
Yesterday and today another bunch of top-notch speakers such as José Luis Buendía (Partner, Garrigues), Piet Jan Slot (Professor, Leiden University), Jerónimo Maillo (San Pablo CEU University), Carlos Urraca (Legal Service, European Commission), Joaquín Fernández (Head of Unit, DG COMP) or Jorge Piernas (EUI), amongst others, have been dealing with state aids and other public interventions.
Here comes the advertising: If you´re sorry you missed those, and fancy the idea of spending a spring weekend in Madrid you can still register for the last two seminars:
– On the 18th of March I will be coordinating a seminar on the application of competition law to network industries. It will feature:
Jarleth Burke (Partner at Jones Day, London) who will be speaking about the regulation and competition law in the telecoms sector;
Júlia Samsó (Latham&Watkins, London), who will deal with the specificities of the energy sector;
Jasper Sluijs (Tilburg Law and Economics Centre), an expert on network neutrality issues;
Myself, for an overview of the challenges posed by network effects and network industries.
– On the 25th of March there will be another seminar on IP and Competition law coordinated by Alvaro Ramos (Senior corporate counsel at Cisco). Its three sessions will deal with
“Excessive pricing and copyrights” with Daniel Escoda (Telefónica), and Pablo Hernández (SGAE);
“Standards and Competition Law” with Jennifer Vasta (Senior Legal Counsel, Qualcomm); Miguel Rato (Partner, Shearman&Sterling) and Álvaro Ramos;
“Competition Law in Cloud Computing“, with Jean Yves Art (General Counsel EMEA Microsoft), Tero Louko (Antitrust Counsel, Google), and Luis Ortiz Blanco (Partner, Garrigues).
There are very few seats left, but if anyone´s interested in registering (half prize for those coming outside of Spain) or obtaining more info, you can write here competencia@ieb.es
My slides
Am in Paris with limited access to the Internet.
I attach the slides I used today in support of a presentation on EU and French competition law at the Association Française d’Etude de la Concurrence (AFEC). Nothing groundbreaking.
Actualité du droit matériel des pratiques anticoncurrentielles – AFEC
My WE Readings…
… involved approximately 5000 pages of case-law (see list below).
I am currently preparing for a conference this Thursday. I have 40 minutes to brief the audience on the main developments in EU and French competition law over 2010.
Now that I have read all that stuff, I should certainly start monetizing my knowledge by making presentations for law firms in Brussels and Paris. I heard a god of competition law used to do this in the past. Any clue?
Slides of GCLC Conference on Horizontal Cooperation Agreements
A good conference overall, nice turnout, good speeches (with a hat tip to Adrian Majumbar who made a remarkable presentation).
A. Gutermuth GCLC – Revision of R-D BER – 16 Feb 2011_(EUROPE_10326795_2) (3)
D. Wood – Horizontals presentation – GCLC – 14022011 (2)
HCG Chapter on Standardisation – GCLC
J. Koponen – Joint purchasing agreements (2)P. Hellstrom – GCLC Standards Brussels Feb 2011 (2)
R. Hesse GCLC Presentation FINAL (2)
Lars Kjolbye – GCLC 16 February 2011 Information Exchange (2)
GCLC Event on Horizontal Cooperation Agreements
On 16 February, the GCLC will hold a half-day conference on the new framework for horizontal cooperation agreements.
The mastermind behind the programme is the esteemed José Rivas. Besides his carreer as a top notch competition practitioner, José teaches at the College in Natolin and joined the GCLC executive committee 6 months ago.
The programme and registration form can be downloaded here.
The European Fordham
Like last year, N. Charbit (concurrences) has managed to put together an impressive programme for the second edition of “New Frontiers of Antitrust“.
The conference will take place on Friday 11th February, at the House of Parliament in Paris.
See link hereafter for the programme. New Frontiers of Antitrust Paris 110211
Save the Date – Best Conference ever on Belgian Competition Law
I have just finalized the programme of a major conference on Belgian Competition Law. This conference will take place on 11, 18 and 24 February, respectively in Liege, Charleroi and Brussels.
The purpose of the event is to provide an exhaustive overview of the first years of enforcement under the Belgian competition law passed in 2006.
To benefit from fresh input, I have applied the “below 40” rule. Most of the speakers are young practitioners. Hereafter, an overview of the programme:
- Le droit belge des ententes et de l’abus de position dominante, Damien Gérard (U.C.L.)
- Le droit belge des concentrations, Marc Abenhaïm (Van Bael & Bellis)
- Le droit processuel de la concurrence, Xavier Taton (U.L.B., Linklaters) et Joachim Marchandise (Linklaters)
- L’application du droit belge de la concurrence dans les secteurs libéralisés, Laurent de Muyter (Jones Day et U.Lg.)
- Le point de vue de l’autorité de contrôle, Laura Parret, Présidente de chambre au Conseil de la concurrence
Looks like we are going to have a lot of fun. A book will be given to registered participants on the day of the event. An official programme and a registration form will be posted here shortly.
ULg Event on Internet Piracy (+ random thoughts on 102 TFEU)
The University of Liege has teamed up with two other Belgian universities to offer an ambitious conference on Internet piracy. On our side, Prof. Alain Strowel and Véronique Delforge are the masterminds behind the project. See link hereafter.
10 11 15 Colloque Téléchargement
I am in Lille today, lecturing on Article 102 TFEU. I read again the Guidance Communication in full. Overall, this is a good document. A few things that retained my attention this time, and that did not strike when I commented it a while ago in World Competition:
- At footnote 3, there is a reference to 101(3) TFEU, which lends support to the implicit existence of an 102(3) defense;
- §56 on tying would have benefited from illustrations;
- In line with the CFI ruling in MSFT, intellectual assets subject to IPRs are not subject to a particular refusal to deal standard;
- The market coverage of the allegedly abusive course of conduct brings relevant information (§20, to contrast with Tomra)
- Saying that there can be unlawful rebates absent a sacrifice is not wholly true (§37). According to the test devised at §§43-45, to be abusive, the rebate must entail a sacrifice, but on the contestable share.
Four Years as the Chief Competition Economist
Feel like having a beer with attending an evening talk of the Chief Competition Economist?
The GCLC will have its third evening policy talk on 23 November 2010 (Marriott Brussels). See hyperlink below for registration form. Tickets will be granted on a 1st come/1st served basis.
GCLC – 3rd Evening Policy Talk – Damien Neven – Four Years As The Chief Competition Economist
Chillin'Competition 