IDC Podcast

11th May, 2023 - At a time when the “consumer welfare” standard seems to be under attack in the competition law and policy world, Assimakis Komninos contributes to the debate with an article on how the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union has viewed that standard over the years. 

While the Europeans observe the heated discussions in the US, Komninos asks himself: (i) if the Europeans are embracing a wrong dogma that has fallen out of favor in its birthplace? and (ii) if this latest embracement of consumer welfare by the EU Courts, is an anachronism?

Komninos says the increasing references to consumer welfare, which is a relatively recent phenomenon, have to be seen in the context of the EU case law becoming less formalistic and more attuned to economics, and to developing clear theories of harm which are based on effects as opposed to form. 

Appropriately, Makis’ article titles: “‘Consumer Welfare' and EU Courts: An Unexpected Refuge for a Persecuted Concept?”, which appears as a contribution to a book edited by Oles Andriychuk to honor the 25th anniversary of the book “Antitrust and the Bounds of Power” by Giuliano Amato.

Makis Komninos is a Partner at the Brussels office of White & Case LLP. He has acted or been part of a number of landmark cases before the European Courts and the European Commission, national competition authorities, national courts and arbitration tribunals. Makis  was  a  Commissioner  and  Member  of  the  Board  of  the  Hellenic  Competition  Commission  (HCC) between 2009 and 2011. He is currently a visiting fellow of the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe at University College London (UCL), and a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) at the College of Europe. He is a prolific writer on legal matters and often gives speeches and seminars on EU law, an NGA to the International Competition Network (ICN), as well as a Member of the International Advisory Board of the IDC - Instituto de Derecho de la Competencia.

26 de abril de 2023 - En diciembre de 2018, Ricardo Riesco fue designado por el Presidente Piñera como titular de la Fiscalía Nacional Económica (FNE), la autoridad de competencia de Chile, responsabilidad que ejerció hasta recientemente.  

Previo a ello, Ricardo obtuvo su maestría (LLM) en la Universidad de Columbia (EEUU) y trabajó en estudios jurídicos importantes en Chile y los EEUU, tanto en el área de derecho de la competencia, como en litigios y arbitraje. También fue profesor de Derecho Procesal de la Universidad Católica de Chile.

En esta charla, cubrimos los temas más diversos. Desde aspectos personales del entrevistado y la importancia del derecho y la política de competencia para Doña Rosa y la Sra. Juanita, hasta los estudios y casos más relevantes durante su gestión como titular de la FNE, los aspectos institucionales, la independencia, la transparencia y el debido proceso, pasando por el análisis del momento político y social de Chile en el que le tocó ejercer parte importante de su mandato.

Es un placer poder compartir con todos Uds. esta rica charla, con un amigo muy especial del IDC.

16 November, 2022 - This is the inaugural meeting of our IDC Conversations' Series, with Prof. Eleanor M. Fox (NYU). Eleanor Fox needs no introduction to the antitrust and competition law community. We will explore the most diverse issues on competition law and policy, such as “why competition”, challenges ahead, state intervention in markets, democracy and competition, trade-offs or compatibilities, landmark cases, and a wide variety of related matters. This session will be co-moderated by Ian Forrester KC (Judge of the General Court of the EU, 2015 - 2020), Daniel Francis (Assistant Professor of Law, NYU) and Pablo Trevisán (Founder & Director, IDC).

11 August, 2022 - Marco Botta is part-time Professor at the European University Institute (EUI), where he is the coordinator of the Florence Competition Programme (FCP) and ENTraNCE for Judges. In addition, he is Affiliated Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition (MPI) in Munich (Germany). Finally, he is Adjunct Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna (Austria), where he teaches EU, competition and State aid law.

Prof. Botta's most recent work (forthcoming) discusses the ‘revival’ of exploitative abuses in Europe. In particular, it analyses the legal test and recent enforcement trends concerning excessive and discriminatory pricing, as well as unfair trading conditions under Art. 102 TFEU. In digital markets, this revival of exploitative abuses has mostly concerned unfair trading conditions. In Prof. Botta's opinion, peculiarities of digital markets (i.e. close to zero marginal costs, winner takes all dynamics and zero-price markets) make hard for a competition agency to assess an excessive pricing case under United Brands test and the benchmarking approach. 

4 July, 2022 - Liza was appointed Senior Advisor at UK’s Financial Conduct Authority in May 2020. She is a Senior Research Fellow and the director of the Competition Law Forum of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL). Her role at BIICL is to chair the Advisory Board of the Competition Law Forum, where they host events for its members and get the Forum involved in national and international competition policy debates and engage in competition law research.

Liza is an NGA to the International Competition Network (ICN), appointed by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). She is a member of ICN's Unilateral Conduct Working Group and the Agency Effectiveness Working Group.

She sits on the advisory board of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (OUP) edited by Professor Bill Kovacic and Professor Ariel Ezrachi.

On 11 February 2022, Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen launched a class-action claim against Meta for allegedly abusing its market dominance for a minimum of £2.2 billion damages on behalf of 45 million affected UK Facebook users.

9 March, 2022 - Prof. Philip Marsden, opens the debate with his thoughts on how administrative decision-making procedures should bolster before the waves of digital infringement cases arrive. 

18 de agosto de 2021 - El tercer episodio del "Ciclo de Referentes" es con el Dr. Baldo Kresalja (Perú), quien es entrevistado por Lucía Quesada (Argentina).

El "Ciclo de Referentes" es presentado por el IDC, como un ciclo de charlas-entrevistas periódicas con los referentes de la libre competencia de la región, a partir de tres disparadores: tres casos, tres propuestas y conclusiones.

30 de junio de 2021 - El primer episodio del "Ciclo de Referentes" es con el Dr. Guillermo Cabanellas (h) (Argentina), quien es entrevistado por Carla Bordoli Calcutta (Chile). 

El "Ciclo de Referentes" es presentado por el IDC, como un ciclo de charlas-entrevistas periódicas con los referentes de la libre competencia de la región, a partir de tres disparadores: tres casos, tres propuestas y conclusiones.

24 de marzo de 2021 - El Prof. Francisco Marcos analiza las novedades de Europa y España en materia de reclamación de daños por ilícitos antitrust, apuntando a las novedades que supone la Directiva UE 2014/104 y las lecciones que pueden extraerse de la incipiente litigación en la materia.