ICN Workshop Competition, Growth, & Recovery
The ICN Vice-Chair for Growth and Recovery, Margarida Matos Rosa, organized the “Competition, Growth and Recovery” Workshop on 25 October.
The workshop addressed the role of competition as we face the challenge of economic recovery in times of inflation. Experts discussed how competition principles can assist policy makers in fostering growth and competitiveness, aiding economic recovery, and supporting broader policy objectives.
The agenda is available here and you can find the key conclusions of the workshop here.
2022 ICN Virtual Itinerary
The ICN’s Virtual Itinerary keeps you up-to-date with the schedule of upcoming ICN events, including seminars, workshops, and the annual conference. This list is updated monthly, and other additions and changes are made when available, so check back often for confirmation.
Replay! October 11 Merger Working Group seminar on data
Now available: The Merger Working Group’s October 11 seminar on Control of Data, Market Power and Potential Competition in Merger Reviews
Enjoy viewing and re-viewing this video via the link below.
2022 ICN Kickoff call on new work -- 6 JULY
Join us for a “Kickoff Call” for the new ICN Year
Hear from the ICN Working Groups on New Work Product and How to Get Involved in this Year’s Projects
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
08:00– 09:00 (Ottawa) / 14:00-15:00 (Bonn)
Join us for this kickoff call of the new ICN year. Co-chairs from each ICN working group – Advocacy, Agency Effectiveness, Cartels, Mergers, and Unilateral Conduct – will present new work product, work plans for 2022/2023, and opportunities to participate in this year’s projects.
We look forward to speaking with you on Wednesday, July 6.
2022 ICN-WBG Competition Advocacy Contest Award Ceremony
Competition Advocacy Contest 2022: Watch the Award Ceremony!
The International Competition Network (ICN) and the World Bank Group were pleased to announce the winners and honorable mentions of the 2022 Competition Advocacy Contest on May 5th during the ICN Annual Conference held in Berlin, Germany.
This contest aims to highlight the key role competition agencies, sector regulators and other governmental bodies or non-governmental organizations play in promoting competition by showcasing their advocacy success stories.
For more information about the awards and their stories, click below.
Seminar: Role of Digital Experts
Webinar recording: Shaping agency digital transformation: the role of digital experts
In March, the AEWG co-chairs organized a webinar discussion on how agencies are acquiring and integrating digital expertise in order to achieve effective and efficient enforcement in the digital age. The webinar explored:
- what digital skills and competencies are valuable in digital transformation and how agencies are acquiring them
- how to bridge analogue and digital expertise
- the role of non-traditional digital experts (e.g., digital transformation/enforcement officers, data scientists/engineers/analysts, IT forensic experts or other similar roles) in agencies’ digitalisation efforts
- the digital experts’ perspective (e.g., what a typical work day for a digital expert looks like, innovative tools/approaches they employ in their work, as well as challenges/obstacles they encounter in their role)
Link to the webinar recording below.
Seminar: Use of Screens in Antitrust
Use of Screens in Antitrust
In March, the Agency Effectiveness Working Group organized an economic seminar on “Use of Screens in Antitrust.” The panelists shared their experiences in recent investigations involving screens in detecting anti-competitive behavior, with examples from procurement and retail settings, addressing questions such as:
- What are examples of recent cases where you have used screens?
- What types of screens or markers did you use?
- What are the economic challenges in using those screens?
Relive the seminar in the link below.
2022 ICN Merger Workshop, March 29-April 1
Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense CADE is pleased to invite you to the 2022 ICN Merger Workshop.
The Workshop will offer insight into current merger-related topics and post-pandemic scenarios, bringing together ICN members and non-governmental advisors (NGAs) to discuss a range of competition enforcement and antitrust matters, competitive concerns, merger reporting issues, and remedies, including recent challenges authorities have been facing and new digital solutions developed to address them.
The workshop will be held in Salvador, Brazil, between 29 March and 1 April as a hybrid event.
The event will be live streamed for ICN members and registered NGAs.
More information, including registration, is available on the workshop website: ICN 2022 SALVADOR, (cade.gov.br)
Please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected] should you have any additional questions regarding for the Merger Workshop 2022.
Double Replay! 2021 Merger Working Group seminars on remedies
Now available! The Merger Working Group 2021 seminars on remedies are now posted.
- Substantive Discussion of Structural and Behavioural Remedies (4 November 2021)
- Coordination of Multijurisdictional Merger Remedies (11 November 2021)
Enjoy viewing and re-viewing these videos via the link below.
Implementing Effective Leniency Programs -- CWG webinar 26 January
Please join us to the first webinar of the Cartel Working Group on “Implementing Effective Leniency Programs: Lessons Learnt and Challenges Ahead” which will take place on 26 January 2022 (Wednesday) at – 2:00 pm CET – Europe Time.
Moderator:
– Mr Pedro Callol – Partner, Callol, Coca & Asociados , Spain
Speakers:
– Mr Juan David Gutiérrez- Professor, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
– Mr David Fernández – Advisor of the Direction of Investigation and Promotion of Defense of Competition, INDECOPI, Peru
– Ms Armine Hakobyan – Deputy Director of the Department of Competition and Public Procurement Policy, Eurasian Economic Commission
– Mr Nick Wilkins- Principal Adviser Criminalization, Cartel Investigations Team, New Zealand Commerce Commission, New Zealand
– Mr David Anderson – Partner, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Belgium
With the increased enforcement efforts against cartels, many ICN member agencies have adopted leniency programs over the years. “Leniency programs” are an important instrument in the fight against cartels since competition agencies can more easily uncover and sanction cartel participants by protecting the first applicant immune from punishment or by giving other applicants reduced sanctions. Information or evidence can be obtained “first-hand” and faster by competition agencies. They also form a deterrence mechanism for those who plan to be a part of cartel arrangements.
On the other hand, there are also some challenges that might prevent effective and efficient leniency programs such as private enforcement and regulatory interventions. Furthermore, the globalization of business and the consequent rise in the number of cartels with international scope together poses new difficulties and challenges in the investigation, in light of the proliferation of leniency systems among competition authorities, highlighting the importance of increased co-operation on both procedural and substantive issues.
The ICN CWG has addressed these issues in many of its work products, including Guidance on Enhancing Cross-Border Leniency Cooperation (2020) http://internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CWG-Leniency-Coordination-Guidance.pdf and Report on Good Practices for Incentivising Leniency Applications (2019) http://internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/CWG-Good-practices-for-incentivising-leniency.pdf
For more information about this seminar, please contact the organiser at: [email protected]