Conference Calls

Market Studies: Economist’s Perspective - March 16

The Agency Effectiveness Working Group
Presents a Webinar on:

Market Studies: Economist’s Perspective

Tuesday, March 16th, 2021
08:00-9:00 (Washington, DC – Eastern Daylight Time)
13:00-14:00 (Brussels – Central European Time)
21:00-22:00 (Tokyo – Japan Standard Time)

The ICN Agency Effectiveness Working Group is organizing an economics teleseminar on March 16th, 2021. Join our panel of Agency and NGA economists where the panellists will each be discussing their recent experiences in conducting market studies by bringing the economic perspective to the forefront. Please see below a short description of the market study each panellist will cover.

The Portuguese Competition Authority: Fintech

In October 2018, the Portuguese Competition Authority published an issues paper on
technological innovation and competition in the financial sector in Portugal. The study assessed market entry conditions for Fintech companies and provided several recommendations to mitigate existing barriers to entry and expansion. More recently, the Authority launched an extensive sector inquiry to Fintech operators to collect their views on recent market developments and the persistence of barriers to entry and expansion. Together with this sector inquiry, in which 88 operators participated, the Authority assessed the degree of implementation of its previous recommendations and revaluated existing market conditions for new entrants. The Authority found that obstacles to the development of competition and innovation persist in the Portuguese financial sector, and that the full implementation of most of the measures recommended is still pending.

The Competition & Consumer Commission of Singapore: Online Travel Booking

The CCCS market study on online travel booking in Singapore examined the commercial arrangements and practices (including price and non-price parity clauses, search rankings and ownership, drip pricing, and pre-ticked boxes) adopted by online travel booking platforms through surveys and interviews conducted with industry stakeholders and consumers. The recommendations sought to encourage all consumer-facing businesses to adopt transparent pricing practices to enable consumers to accurately compare prices and make informed purchasing decisions. Following the study, the CCCS has also undertaken an ex-ante quantitative evaluation of the consumer benefits from the study’s recommendations.

Panellists:

ANA SOFIA RODRIGUES
Chief Economist, Portuguese Competition Authority

TAN HI-LIN
Director, Policy & Markets, Competition & Consumer Commission of Singapore

Moderator:

PROF. AMELIA FLETCHER
University of East Anglia

Contact AEWG Working Group Co-Chairs:

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Assessing Horizontal Cooperation in times of Covid-19 - March 3

The Cartel Working Group

Presents a Webinar on:
Assessing Horizontal Cooperation at times of Covid-19
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
8 am New York/ 2pm Rome / 4 pm Moscow time
90 minutes

 
This webinar will explore the development and implementation, during the outbreak of the Covid-19 emergency, of policies concerning the assessment of horizontal cooperation projects. The webinar will address the procedures put in place by competition agencies in providing guidance, the expected risks and the benefits deriving from the horizontal cooperation projects.

Dial-in Numbers & Webinar Links – contact CWG Chairs

Moderator
Mr Assimakis Komninos
Partner, White & Case

Speakers
Ms Cristina Volpin
Competition Expert, OECD Competition Division

Ms Alessandra Tonazzi
Director, European & International Affairs
Italy’s AGCM

Mr Aleko Bogdanov,
Antitrust Policy Unit, DG Competition
European Commission

Mr. Hideyuki SHIMOZU
Senior Investigator for International Cartel
Japan Fair Trade Commission

Mr Diogo Thomson
Deputy Superintendent
Brazil CADE

Contact CWG Working Group Co-Chairs:

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Digitalisation, Innovation and Agency Effectiveness - March 2

The Agency Effectiveness Working Group
Presents a Webinar on:
Digitalisation, Innovation and Agency Effectiveness
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
08:00 am Washington DC / 14:00 pm Stockholm / 15:00 pm Gaborone / 21:00 pm Singapore

The AEWG co-chairs invite member agencies to join them in the discussion on how to digitalise and innovate their authorities in order to achieve effective and efficient enforcement in the digital age. The webinar will explore the following questions:

  • Agencies’ internal digital goals, strategies or tactics;
  • Recruiting or training new digital talent, creating new digital teams;
  • Innovative digital tools and technologies agencies use to increase their efficiency;
  • How COVID-19 has impacted agencies’ digital transformation.

Moderator
Dr. Barbara Seelos, Senior Case Handler and Deputy Head of Staff
Austrian Federal Competition Authority

Speakers
Mr. Stig Bendiksen Hauge, Director of Administration
Norwegian Competition Authority

Ms. Mariana Rosa, Managing Director
Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), Brazil

Mr. Pedro Isaac Alcalá Berhouague, Head of the Digital Markets General Directorate
Mexican Competition Authority (COFECE)

Ms. Ninette Mwarania, Manager, Planning, Policy and Research
Competition Authority of Kenya

Mr. Flavio Laina, Head of Unit, Cartels V
DG COMP

Mr. Julian Daniel Jimenez Krause, IT Project Manager, Information Technology
DG COMP

Contact AEWG Working Group Co-Chairs:

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Advocacy Working Group Seminar -- January 28

The Advocacy Working Group

Presents a Webinar on:

Competition Advocacy to Support Robust Competition in a Post-pandemic World

Thursday, January 28, 2021

14.00 to 15.30 CET (Paris, Oslo)

The Covid-19 crisis brought about many challenges related to competition enforcement and advocacy. As the crisis developed, many competition enforcers around the globe sent clear messages that competition law would be strictly enforced and in some cases raised concerns about cooperation among businesses. At the same time, the enforcers targeted information on their websites, allocated resources to meet the demand for guidance and were involved to provide advice on government’s relief measure to businesses, which overnight lost the basis for its activity.

Now, as the Covid-19 pandemic enters a new phase with vaccines being rolled out, new advocacy challenges will materialize. The goal of advocacy strategies in this phase can on the one hand be damage control: to minimize damages caused to competition due to a significant drop in supply and demand, changes in market structure, and competition culture. However, the strategic goal can also be more ambitious: to promote the role of competition and a post-crisis pro-competitive regulatory framework to boost economic recovery, enabling economies to emerge stronger from the crisis.

This AWG webinar will discuss the challenges and the role of competition advocacy in the economic recovery after the crisis.

Moderator

  • Kjell J. Sunnevåg, Norwegian Competition Authority

Introduction

  • Bill Kovacic, Professor, George Mason University School of Law, USA
  • Ruben Maximiano, Senior Competition Expert, OECD

Country perspectives

  • Naoko Teranishi, Head of Office of Policy Planning and Research for Digital Markets, JFTC
  • Adano Wario, Director Planning Policy and Quality Assurance, Competition Authority of Kenya
  • Lars Sørgard, Director general, Norwegian Competition Authority
  • Alfonso Camba, Deputy Head of Market Studies Unit at the Advocacy Department, CNMC, Spain
  • David Lamb, Head of the Planning, Liaison and International Affairs and Rodrigo Rios, Executive Director of Regulatory Analysis and Collaboration with the Public Sector, COFECE, Mexico

For more information about the call, please contact the AWG co-chairs:

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Cartel Seminar

The ICN Cartel Working Group Presents a Webinar on
‘Leniency perspectives from the private bar’
Wednesday, 11 November 2020
8.00 (EST) / 13.00 (GMT) / 14.00 (CET)

 

The webinar intends to provide a new angle to the previous work on leniency by giving an insight from NGA perspectives into the factors that are taken into consideration when deciding to submit a leniency/immunity application; why a client might decide against it and also what factors go into the decision to grant or not grant waivers to jurisdictions to exchange information with one another.

Moderator:
Mr Zoltán MAROSI
Attorney at Law / Partner, Oppenheim Law Firm, Hungary

Speakers:
Mr Mateo DIEGO-FERNÁNDEZ
Partner AGON, Mexico

Mr Raimundo ORTEGA
Partner, Antitrust & Competition Law, Energy,  Jones Day, Spain

Mr Manuel CONTRERAS
Senior Associate specialized in competition law Herbert Smith Freehills, Spain

Mr Christof SWAAK
Head of the competition and regulation practice of Stibbe in New York and Amsterdam, EU

Mr Eric MEIRING
Partner, Antitrust, Winston & Strawn LLP, US

Interested agencies and NGAs can contact the CWG SG1 Co-chairs and ask for the dial-in details. 

ICN's leniency related work

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ICN Training Overview

Join us for another session of ICN’s 2020 Fall Seminar Series!

Tuesday, November 10, 2020
08:00 EST / 14:00 CET

THE WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY & HOW OF
ICN’s Training on Demand

 

The world’s top competition experts are just a click away! The ICN’s ever-expanding collection of online video training modules is available to you anywhere, anytime.

Please join us for this Fall Webinar showcasing the ICN Training on Demand project. During the webinar, we will describe the origins of the ICN Training on Demand project, show you where to access videos, hear about how to make use of the video library, and tell you how you can get involved in the development and production of future training modules.

Interested agencies and NGAs can ask for the dial-in details. 

ICN's Training on Demand modulesICN's YouTube Channel videos

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MWG: Sound Decision Making

Join us for another session of ICN’s 2020 Fall Seminar Series!

The ICN Merger Working Group
Presents a Fall Webinar on
Sound Decision Making
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
8.00 (EST) / 13.00 (GMT) / 14.00 (CET)

This webinar shall discuss topics addressed during the Merger Working Group’s regional webinars on sound decision making in merger assessment, such as evidence-based decision making, transparency, independence, and anti-bribery.

Moderator
Joel Bamford
Senior Director, Mergers
Competition and Markets Authority, UK

Speakers
Patricia Brink
Director of Professional Development
Antitrust Division, USA

Kaoru Harada
Senior Officer, M&A Division
Fair Trade Commission, Japan

Cristiane Landerdahl de Albuquerque
Head of Merger & Antitrust Unit for Regulated Markets
CADE, Brazil

Raphael Mburu
Manager, Mergers and Acquisitions
Competition Authority, Kenya

 

Interested agencies and NGAs can contact the MWG Co-chairs and ask for the dial-in details. 

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UCWG: Digital Markets seminar

Join us for another session of ICN’s 2020 Fall Seminar Series!

Please join us for an ICN UCWG webinar on the “Report on the Results of the ICN Survey on Dominance/Substantial Market Power in Digital Markets” on 27 October 2020, 9:00 EDT/14:00 CET.

Speakers will share experience on key elements of the report and will discuss what further guidance may be needed to help agencies assess market power in digital markets.

Moderator:

Ekaterina Rousseva,  Policy and case coordinator, European Commission, DG Competition

Speakers:

Simone Wong, Principal Economist, Competition and Consumer Economics Unit, ACCC, Australia

Dr. Sebastian Wismer, Head of Unit Digital Economy, Bundeskartellamt, Germany

Sergio Rodriguez Garcia, Director General for Market Investigations, COFECE, Mexico

Yves Botteman, Partner, Dentons Europe LLP, Brussels, Belgium, also UCWG NGA for DG Competition

 

Best regards,

Interested agencies and NGAs can contact the UCWG Co-chairs and ask for the dial-in details. 

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