Agenda
07:30 - 08:30
Registration and breakfast
08:30 - 08:45
Welcome address
Raphaël De Coninck
Vice President, Charles River Associates
Margaret Sanderson
Vice President & Practice Leader, Charles River Associates
08:45 - 09:45
Session 1: Antitrust in cost-of-living crisis: what can competition policy do to help?
Rising concentration, rising profits, rising prices – and decreasing costs. Disentangling the root causes of recent paradigm shifts in applied competition policy, this panel discusses the latest insights into the drivers of increasing concentration and profits. Can we identify the boundaries between efficient and harmful concentration? How much of it is to blame for Europe’s cost-of-living crisis – and what tools do Authorities have to tame it (beyond merger control)? The panel will discuss recent experiences in detecting collusion, preventing public price announcements, price and pass-on controls, and blaming and shaming along the (food) supply chain.
Chris Conlon
Associate Professor of Economics, New York University Stern School of Business
Damien Gerard
Prosecutor General, Belgian Competition Authority
Yelena Larkin
Associate Professor of Finance, The Schulich School of Business, York University
Ana Sofia Rodrigues
Commissioner, Portuguese Competition Authority
Lars Wiethaus - Moderator
Vice President, Charles River Associates
09:45 - 10:15
Keynote address
Olivier Guersent
Director-General, Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission
10:15 - 11:15
Session 2: From poetry to prose: first experiences of digital regulation
We’ve entered the most important phase of digital regulation: concrete application. We can think of digital regulation like AI. Both have expanded fast in recent years and have huge potential, but they require training and their full effects are yet to be seen. Both are built on a projection of past data and previous experiences, but their true value depends on how we use them in the future and for what ultimate objective. Both come in two phases: design and application.
Many regulatory tools have been designed in Europe – now comes the time of practical application. A lot of learning by doing is underway. A panel of top enforcers and academics will discuss first experiences and what to expect next.
Amelia Fletcher
Professor of Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich Business School
Joshua Gans
Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto
LluÃs Saurà Romero
Acting Chief Economist, DG Competition, European Commission
Fiona Scott Morton
Theodore Nierenberg Professor of Economics; Yale School of Management, Senior Consultant to CRA
Martijn Snoep
Chairman, Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (A