E.CA Competition Law & Economics Expert Forum – keynotes by Valletti and Mundt
1 October 2018, Berlin
This year, the E.CA Expert Forum, organised jointly with ESMT Berlin, focussed on two themes, Digital Markets and Merger Control.
Tommaso Valletti, chief economist at DG Competition, and Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt, were holding the keynote speeches, providing an insight on their views on competition enforcement in digital markets and current and future merger control.
Mike Walker, chief economist of the UK Competition and Markets Authority, presented on Digital Pricing and Algorithms and contributed to the Digital Markets panel. Arno Rasek, chief economist of the Bundeskartellamt, presented a new method for regional market definition and contributed to the merger panel, alongside with Giulio Federico from the Chief Economist Team of the European Commission.
In total, Chief Economists from five competition authorities were part of the panel or in the audience. Authority representatives from 13 different countries had registered for the Expert Forum, contributing to valuable discussions during the various sessions and panels.
We would like to thank all speakers and participants for having contributed to this event!
Programme
View the programme of the Expert Forum here.
Presentations
Digital Markets – Key Issues
- Modernising competition law in light of digital markets, Intro Panel, Hans W. Friederiszick, E.CA Economics and ESMT Berlin
- Economies of Platforms, Özlem BEDRE-DEFOLIE, Associate Professor of Economics, ESMT Berlin
Brand Reputation, Cooperation and Intra-Platform Competition
- Brand reputation, cooperation and intra-platform competition, Rainer NITSCHE, Director, E.CA Economics and Research Fellow, ESMT Berlin
- Brand reputation, cooperation and intra-platform competition – Comments, Monika Schnitzer, Professor, LMU München
Digital Pricing and Algorithms
- Digital pricing and algorithms, Dr. Mike Walker, Chief Economist, Competition and Markets Authority
- Discussion on “Digital pricing and algorithms”, Markus Reisinger, Professor for Industrial Organization and Microeconomics at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Data-Driven Services, Online Advertisement and Privacy
- Data-Driven Services, Online Adverstisement and Privacy, Keith WAEHRER, Partner, Bates White
- Comment on “Data-Driven Services, Online Adverstisement and Privacy”, Dorothea KÜBLER, Director, Department of Market Behaviour, WZB and Professor of Economics, Technical University of Berlin
Mergers – Are Markets too Concentrated?
- Jan DE LOECKER, Professor of Economics, KU Leuven, NBER and CEPR – presentation to be added shortly
- Are Markets too Concentrated? Achim WAMBACH, Head of the German Monopolies Commission and President of the Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
Mergers in Geographically Differentiated Markets
- Mergers in Geographically Differentiated Markets, Arno RASEK, Chief Economist, Bundeskartellamt
- Mergers in Geographically Differentiated Markets – discussion, Daniel STREITZ, Assistant Professor, Copenhagen Business School
Innovation in Merger Analysis
- Dietmar HARHOFF, Director, MPI Innovation & Competition – presentation to be added shortly
Press coverage
Press coverage by PaRR:
DG Comp chief economist says merging firms could advise on common shareholdings – Berlin E.CA Expert Forum
Filing parties could play a role in helping the European Commission (EC) to assess common shareholdings in merger review, DG Comp’s chief economist told a conference in Berlin today (1 October).
A pragmatic solution could be to request merging firms to tell authorities who their top 10 investors are, Tommaso Valletti said during the E.CA Competition Law & Economics Expert Forum. This would prevent the EC shouldering an additional burden and at the same time would allow common ownership links to be identified, he added.
For more information or to read the whole story, please use the following links (accessible for subscribers of PaRR only):
- DG Comp chief economist says merging firms could advise on common shareholdings
- DG Comp chief economist says agencies should increase ex-post merger assessment
- BKartA chief says around 20 mergers considered under new thresholds
- BKartA head flags potential further Facebook action by year end
Press coverage by MLex:
Press coverage by GCR:
