IDC Podcast Pablo Trevisán

26 June, 2023 - In every aspect of life, it is invaluable to know and understand the causes of things. Antitrust and competition law and policy is no exception to this rule. 
In his recent book, "Monopoly in America", a follow on project of his previous one, "Antitrust and Competition Laws", our guest today, Prof. Barry Hawk, sheds invaluable light to the better understanding of current law and policy, as well as the institutions of competition law in the US. 
Studying the history of the evolution of competition law and policy helps to understand the present, as well as to imagine and build the future. Revisiting the historical origins of many of the institutions and legal figures of competition law, help to better understand the reason for things, their foundation and, on many occasions, what should be their specific application in a specific case. "Monopoly in America" largely fulfills this objective.
American history did not begin in 1890 and American attitudes toward monopoly did not begin with the Sherman Act. Colonial Americans did not need instruction from Louis Brandeis to oppose monopolies. Americans have always hated monopoly―both public and private. At the same time, Americans have accepted government grants to incentivize production and innovation. And private monopolies resulting exclusively from skill, foresight and industry have been viewed as welcome entrepreneurial success. 
"Monopoly in America" offers a tour of the American experience with the notion of monopoly, including Prof. Hawk’s three kinds of monopoly from a historical perspective that he divides in four eras. While doing so, he examines the American antimonopoly tradition from its inception in the early 1600s to the present debate about the effectiveness of antitrust laws to deal with today’s monopolies. 
Barry Hawk is a leading expert in antitrust law; former partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Former Director of the Fordham Competition Law Institute, 1974-2015. Former Professor of U.S. and international antitrust law at Fordham Law School, Michigan Law School, Monash University Law School (Melbourne), New York University Law School and University of Paris V. Author of many books and articles on antitrust and competition law and policy, including the annual volumes of the Fordham Competition Law Institute. Barry is also a member of IDC’s International Advisory Board.

If you wish to enjoy the conversation we had on 17th June, 2020, with Prof. Eleanor Fox and Ian Forrester KC on Prof. Barry Hawk's previous book Antitrust and Competition Laws, please click here.

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.