Competition Law 2.0: Forging A New Paradigm in a Crisis-Driven World

Day 1 Cambridge-UCL Competition Law and Policy Hub Conference

9.05 Welcome Stavros Makris, UCL

9.15 Special event roundtable:
Polycentric Competition Law Applied: Looking Back, Moving the Agenda Forward - A new framework for the multi-faceted assessments of global mergers and restrictive business practices in food value chains

Global merger activity and restrictive business practices in food markets is intense and has multifaceted implications, affecting economic growth, innovation, sustainability and resilience as well as the consumer welfare (CW). Yet, competition law enforcement is only (or predominately) focusing on the CW implications of mergers and restrictive business practices (the level of prices and output), relying on neoclassical economic analysis and adopting narrowly designed remedies. Recognizing the specificities of the food sector, in terms of economic, political and social significance, various stakeholders and competition authorities (CA) have acknowledged the necessity for a more holistic polycentric competition law driven approach. This session will draw on the polycentric competition law model to discuss a theoretically robust, evidence-based, and policy-relevant framework for the analysis of the true social costs of global mergers and restrictive business practices in food value chains. The framework should engage with the complexity of the global food value chains, involves new definitions and metrics of economic power, proceeds to a more comprehensive analysis of innovation, sustainability and resilience effects of global food merger activity, and integrates the financialisation of food systems.

Chair: Jacques Steenberger, KU Leuven

Speakers:

• Ioannis Lianos, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Justin Lindeboom, Groningen University
• Stavros Makris, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Deni Mantzari, UCL Faculty of Laws
• Teresa Moreira, UNCTAD
• and guest speakers

10:35 Break

10:50 PANEL 1: Mergers
Chair: Ganesh Anush, St Mary’s University

• Daniel Luz (University of Cambridge)    
  Revisiting Rationality and Homogeneity: An Empirical Legal Analysis of Consumer Assumptions in UK Merger Control
• Lin Rebecca  (University of Chicago)   
  Polycentric Diffusion: Learning  Model of Merger Enforcement  
• Rock Brianna (Research Consultant)  and Malikova Helena (DG Comp)        
  Elusive Efficiencies in Digital M&As
• Stakheyeva Hanna and Can Canbolat Ertugrul  (ACTECON)   
  Reflecting on National Security Considerations in Merger Control: Insights from the EU and Türkiye

12:15 Lunch

13:15 PANEL 2: Competition Law, Industrial Policy and Power
Chair: Justin Lindeboom, University of Groningen  

• Iskander Marina (University of Cambridge)      
  Integrating competition law and trade policy
• Morozovaite Viktorija (University of Amsterdam), Gerbrandy Anna and Phoa Pauline (University of Utrecht)     
  Unveiling the Discursive Power of Big Tech: Implications for EU Competition Law and Beyond
• Pacheco Julian (Universidad del Rosario)   
  Recalibrating Competition Law in an Era of Global Tariffs and Industrial Policy
• Pelekis Dionysios, Gerbrandy Anna, Kozak Malgorzata  (University of Utrecht)    
  Opinion Power, Media Pluralism & Democracy: The Role of Competition Law
• Oles Andriychuk  (Exeter Law School)    
  EU’s New Industrial Policy for Digital Markets: Do We Know How?

14.45 Comfort break

15:00 PANEL 3: Re-imagining competition law (Adjudication and Scope)
Chair: Oles Andriychuk, University of Exeter 

• Lindeboom Justin (University of Groninngen)    
  Is ‘Competition’ an Essentially Contested Concept (and Why Does It Matter)?
• Davis Liat (George Washington University     
  Problem Solving: Finding Integrity in Competition Law Adjudication
• Makris Stavros  (UCL)    
  Rethinking Indeterminacy: Competition Law as an Interpretive Argumentative Practice
• Beems Belle (Radbound University)    
  Pre-emption and hierarchy of norms
• Broulik Jan (University of Amsterdam)       
  Counterparty Welfare: A Compromise between the Competitive Process and Consumer Welfare

16.30 Break
16:45 PANEL 4: Shaping the Digital Future (part A)
Chair: Jan Broulik (University of Amsterdam)

• Majcher Klaudia  (EUI)    
  Taming Epistemic Power Through EU Digital Law:
• Hoffmann Linus  (Strathclyde University)    
  Abuse of Dominance and the Commodification of the Cyberspace
• Japaridze Liana (University of Sussex)    
  Refusal to Supply by Digital Platforms - Where do We Stand after CJEU’s Google Android Auto Judgment?
• Chapoupi Georgia (Maastricht University)    
  Internet of Things-Enabled World: European Competition Law and Access Obligations
• Edward Willis (University of Otago)
  Competition Law as a Response to Private Law Failure    

18.15 Conference drinks 

19:15 End of Day 1

Day 2 – Valentine Korah conference

From 9.00 Welcome coffee (grab your coffee and let’s discuss the reformation of competition law!)

9:15 PANEL 5: Digital Competition Law & AI
Chair: Amber Darr, University of Manchester

• Carla Faila  (Universita degli studi di Palermo)
  AIs and their competitive effects: a legal perspective on the impact of AIs on markets and consumer behaviour
• Elena Ponte  (FTC)
  AI and data-driven competition: What is the Relevant Product Market for Data?
• Julian Mendelsohn (Technische Universität Ilmenau)
  On Normative Power and Exploitative Abuse in Digital Markets
• Ahuja Ketan (Harvard Kennedy School)
  Innovation Ecosystems in Antitrust

10.25  Highlight – The Reformation of Competition Law: What’s next in terms of methods?
Chair: Ioannis Lianos, UCL

• Filip Lubinski  (EUI)
  More Economic Approach 2.0 Science-based Competition Law
• Todd Davies (UCL)
  Market Diversity and Market Churn Measures of Competitive Structure

11:00 Comfort Break

11:10 2nd UCL Competition Law and Policy Book Fest
Chair: Deni Mantzari, UCL Faculty of Laws

• Or Brook
  Non-competition interests in EU antitrust law  
• Bjorn Lundqvist
  Regulating access and transfer of data
• Konstantinos Stylianou
  Antitrust in the Decentralized Economy

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Panel 6: Fair Prices and Exploitation
Chair: Bjorn Lundqvist, University of Stockholm

• Ganesh Anush (St Mary’s University, Twickenham)
  Law and economics of price personalization: Relevance of secondary-line injury cases under Article 102(c) TFEU
• Bostoen Friso  & Monti Giorgio (Tilburg University)    
  Putting a Price on AI Training Data
• Liang Li (China University of Political Science and Law)
  Theories of harm for excessive personal data collection:  What’s wrong and who’s role?
• Kianzad Behrang (Lund University)
  From Fairness to Resilience: Rethinking Unfair Pricing and Digital Market Abuses in a Crisis-Driven Competition Paradigm

14:40 Coffee Break

14:55 PANEL 7: Competition Law, sustainability and the internal market 
Chair: Or Brook, Leeds University

• Moskal Anna (ACCC & Monash Law School)
  Sustainability or deception? Navigating greenwashing narratives of digital platforms in the sharing economy
• Iacovides Marios (Uppsala University) & Vrettos Christos
  Competition Policy, Sustainability, and the Green Deal: How Post-Growth Might Revolutionise the EU’s Views on Output, Profit, and Innovation
• Zelger Bernadette (Leopold-Franzens Universität Innsbruck)
  The reactive nature of EU competition law – Divergent approaches in EU internal market and competition law in shaping the EU economic order

16:00 Panel 8 Optimal enforcement theory, fundamental rights and ethics: do the ends justify the means? 
Chair: Marios Iacovides, Uppsala Univ.

• Rebelo Enzo  (QMUoL)  
  Even Gatekeepers Have Rights: Assessing the Compatibility of the DMA Framework with Fundamental Rights and General Principles of EU Law in Light of Competition Law Jurisprudence
• De Ceuster Jeroen (Ghent University)
  The Content of EU cartel settlement decisions
• Palacios Lleras Andres (Universidad del Rosario)
  The Contested Ethics of Leniency Programs

17:00 Break

17:15 Panel 9 Competition Law and its stakeholders 
Chair: Anna Gebrandy, Utrecht University 

• Pinheiro Folakunmi (University of Cambridge )
  The Distributional Implications of the AEC Principle: An African Perspective
• Ruben Verdoodt (KU Leuven)
  Studying The Impact of Competition Law on Wealth Distribution and Economically Vulnerable Consumers
• Sapre Rishika (NLIU, Bhopal)
  A Competition Law Approach to Digital Childhoods: Targeting Market Power and Platform Design

18:15 End of the Event 

Speakers = free of charge
 
Legal Practitioners = £80
Public Sector (Government / Academics (full time) = £60
Phd Researchers / Students = £40

You can book online and pay by card at:
https://ucl-cambridge-competition-law-2.eventbrite.co.uk

You will receive a sales invoice with your online booking for your records.

Please email lisa.penfold@ucl.ac.uk if you have queries about bookings for this conference