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: