ST. MARTIN CONFERENCE RECENT TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY 2012

Tuesday, 13 November 2012

 

PANEL I: WHAT'S NEW IN COMPETITION?

Overview of the latest trends and developments in the competition law and policy in the Czech Republic, USA and European Union during the last year

 

Michal Petr
Vice-Chairman; Czech Competition Authority

 

Michal Petr has worked for the Czech Competition Authority since 2003. In 2010, he was appointed Vice-Chairman responsible for competition law enforcement.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Palacky University in Olomouc and Masaryk University in Brno. Before his current appointment, he worked as Director of the Legislation and International Affairs Section and as a chairman of the appellate commission of the Authority. He was responsible for the amendments of the Protection of Competition Act related to accession of the Czech Republic to the EU, revision of the leniency programme or delimitation of competences of the Competition Authority and sector regulators.

He lectures competition law at Masaryk University in Brno and Palacky University in Olomouc. He authored and co-authored numerous publications on competition law and due process issues and is a member of the editorial board of the Revue of Competition Law magazine.

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David Anderson
Partner; Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP

 

David Anderson is a partner in Berwin Leighton Paisner and the Managing Partner of its Brussels office. He has practiced in competition law field for over 15 years. His practice focuses on international merger, cartel and abuse of dominance cases. He advises on EU regulatory law, transport law and on communications and public affairs strategies. 

He represents global corporations on merger and dominance issues before the European Commission and national antitrust and sector regulators around the world. He is a Non-Governmental Adviser to the European Commission on the work of the International Competition Network (ICN).

He has advised national competition law authorities around the world on competition law reform directly and through the World Bank, the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the ICN and the TACIS and PHARE programmes.

David Anderson is ranked and recognized as a leading international competition lawyer by Chambers Global, Chambers Europe, Legal 500 EMEA, Legal Business a Practical Law Company. He has published numerous articles in many publications.

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Petr Zákoucký
Senior Associate; Clifford Chance LLP

 

Petr Zákoucký is a senior associate at Clifford Chance in Prague and leads the office's energy, competition and public procurement practice. He represents clients in the development of new projects, M&A, joint venture projects and disputes in the Czech Republic as well as within the region.

Within its regulatory practice, he also regularly lectures at conferences (including, for instance, TOPGAS and CEPKON conferences and Czech Competition Office) and at the retreats of the energy section of the Union of In-House Lawyers. He spent a half a year  with the Clifford Chance competition team in Brussels.

Before joining Clifford Chance in 2006, Petr worked for the law firm White & Case; he also completed internships with the General Court in Luxembourg and with the European Commission's DG Competition in Brussels. Petr obtained a master's degree in law from Charles University in Prague (2002), within which completed a one-year exchange study programme at the Faculty of Law in Manchester (2001). He also completed LL.M. study programmes in Tuebingen (2004) and Amsterdam (2005).

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PANEL II: DISTORTION OF COMPETITION BY PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

 

Josef Bejček
Head of Commercial Law Department of the Faculty of Law; Masaryk University Brno 

 

Formerly the Dean of the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno (1995 – 2001).  He currently chairs the Commercial Law Department of the same faculty. He has been called upon as an expert witness in various important international arbitrations. He has been a member of the Remonstrance Commission of the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition since the very beginning of its existence, and he has also taken part in the work of many technical teams that contributed to the drafting of certain new legislation (the Civil Code, the Act on the Protection of Competition, and the Public Procurement Act). He works as an arbitrator of the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Czech Agrarian Chamber.

Prof Bejček has been and is a member of several scientific councils; he worked in accreditation commissions of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Czech Government’s Cou­ncil for Research and Development, and as a member of the Social and Economic Sciences council of the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He is a member of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA), the Czech Group of the International Association of Legal Science and the Czech Group of the International League of Competition Law; he is a member of the Czech Bar Association as well.  He has lectured around the world, including Vienna, Budapest, Munich, Berlin, Poznan, Regensburg, Salzburg, New York, Atlanta, Washington, Zurich, Bonn, Aix-en-Provence... He has been working in some editorial boards of legal journals and he currently presides over the editorial board of the specialized journal for competition law „Antitrust“. Prof Bejček has authored and co-authored a number of articles, studies, and textbooks on competition law and commercial law.

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John Davies
Head of Competition Division; OECD

 

John Davies is an economist specialising in the areas of competition policy and economic regulation. After taking degrees in economics from Cambridge and Oxford, he worked as a consulting economist from 1994 to 2003 for various firms.  In this role he advised clients in the private and public sectors on mergers, abuse of monopoly, network regulation, privatisation and optimal tariff-setting. In 2003 he joined the UK Competition Commission as deputy Chief Economist, becoming Chief Economist in 2005. He managed a team of 20 to 30 economists and was responsible for the quality of the economic analysis on investigations.  This was a period in which the CC took on new responsibilities under the 2002 Enterprise Act and undertook major investigations involving significant economic analysis.  Notable cases included the market investigations of Groceries and Airports, the BskyB/ITV merger inquiry and a regulatory inquiry into mobile telephony. At the start of 2009 John took up a two-year post to establish the new Competition Commission of Mauritius as its first Executive Director. The CCM became fully operational before the end of the year, and he led the new institution through its first year of work, investigating sectors including meat imports, insurance, travel agents, banks and telecoms.

In May 2011, John became Head of the Competition Division of the OECD in Paris.  The division supports the work of the Competition Committee of the OECD, through analytical work for discussion at the Committee as well as advisory and assistant work to member countries and ‘outreach’ work to non-member countries.  The division supports an annual ‘global forum’ for competition officials from around 100 jurisdictions.

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Michaela Nosa
Slovak Competition Authority 

 

Michaela Nosa graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava.

During her studies she started to focus on the area of competition protection.

She has worked for Slovak Competition Authority since 2004.

Currently she is responsible for the Legislative, Legal and European Affairs Division within which she represents the Competition Authority in judicial proceedings, she participates in legislative activities and represents the Authority at the ECN and other international meetings.

She is an author of several articles on competition law.

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Michal Petr
Vice-Chairman; Czech Competition Authority

 

Michal Petr has worked for the Czech Competition Authority since 2003. In 2010, he was appointed Vice-Chairman responsible for competition law enforcement.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Palacky University in Olomouc and Masaryk University in Brno. Before his current appointment, he worked as Director of the Legislation and International Affairs Section and as a chairman of the appellate commission of the Authority. He was responsible for the amendments of the Protection of Competition Act related to accession of the Czech Republic to the EU, revision of the leniency programme or delimitation of competences of the Competition Authority and sector regulators.

He lectures competition law at Masaryk University in Brno and Palacky University in Olomouc. He authored and co-authored numerous publications on competition law and due process issues and is a member of the editorial board of the Revue of Competition Law magazine.

 

Miroslav Uřičař
General Counsel; T-Mobile Czech Republic a. s.

 

Miroslav Uricar graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague.  After the studies, he worked as a legal counsel in the corporate sector, e.g. at OKD a.s. Since 1999, he has been employed at T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s., where he is currently Vice President of the Legal and Regulatory Department, holding the post of General Counsel. He is also responsible for External Affairs and participates in international projects within the Deutsche Telekom Group. He specializes in administrative law and in regulatory issues related to network industries, especially the electronic communications industry, including aspects involving competition law issues.

Miroslav Uricar is the chairman of the legislative committee of the Czech Association for Competition Law. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Mobile Network Operators and a member of Executive Board of UNICEF ČR. He has published in professional journals, is a member of the Editorial Board of the International In-house Counsel Journal, and occasionally lectures at conferences and seminars.

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PANEL III: MORE ECONOMIC APPROACH IN NETWORK AND REGULATED INDUSTRIES

 

Milan Brouček
Chief Economist; Slovak Competition Authority

 

Milan Brouček studied economics and management at Military University of Ground Forces in Vyškov, Faculty of National Defense Economics.

In 2000-2004 he worked as a teacher and analyst.

In 2004 he began to work at the Office for the Protection of Competition as a director of the Economic department and since the beginning of 2009 as the Chief Economist.

Since May 2012 he has been acting as Chief Economist at the Slovak Competition Authority.

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Martin Bebiak
Analyst; Candole Partners

 

Martin Bebiak works as an analyst in Cadole Partners Company.

He focuses on the competition and market analysis mainly in the area of production and electricity trading as well as other regulated industries.

In addition, he is interested in the regulation in network industries with a focus on energy markets.

He studied Economics (National Economy, Industrial Economics) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business.

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Daniel Donath
DG Competition of the European Commission

 

Currently, Daniel Donath is a member of the Chief Economist Team at the Directorate-General for Competition; he focuses mainly on the use of econometrics and other quantitative techniques in merger and antitrust cases. Before coming to Brussels, he worked at CRA International in London and also as the manager for economics consultancy at Deloitte's Washington office.

In his previous private practice, he dealt with a number of EU merger cases and contributed to the elaboration of damage calculation and regulatory analyses in telecommunications and financial services. He holds Ph.D. in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University.

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Alexis Walckiers
Chief Economist; Belgian Competition Authority

 

Alexis Walckiers is the chief economist of the Belgian competition authority. He applies economics to competition policy, advising Belgian competition prosecutors on issues surrounding mergers and competition investigations. Dr. Walckiers regularly represents Belgium in international competition fora.

Prior to joining the Belgian competition authority, he worked for Oxera, an economics consultancy, where he specialized in the economics of competition law and financial regulation, advising clients within many jurisdictions including Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and the EU.

Dr. Walckiers holds a PhD in economics from Ecares-ULB. Papers from his dissertation were published in the Journal of the European Economic Association (P&P) and International Tax and Public Finance.

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Wednesday, 14 November 2012

 

PANEL I:  UNDERTAKING AS AN ECONOMIC UNIT

 

Michal Petr
Vice-Chairman; Czech Competition Authority

 

Michal Petr has worked for the Czech Competition Authority since 2003. In 2010, he was appointed Vice-Chairman responsible for competition law enforcement.

He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Palacky University in Olomouc and Masaryk University in Brno. Before his current appointment, he worked as Director of the Legislation and International Affairs Section and as a chairman of the appellate commission of the Authority. He was responsible for the amendments of the Protection of Competition Act related to accession of the Czech Republic to the EU, revision of the leniency programme or delimitation of competences of the Competition Authority and sector regulators.

He lectures competition law at Masaryk University in Brno and Palacky University in Olomouc. He authored and co-authored numerous publications on competition law and due process issues and is a member of the editorial board of the Revue of Competition Law magazine.

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Jeroen Capiau
Policy Advisor; DG Competition, European Commission

 

Jeroen Capiau joined the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission in 2009. He is a policy advisor in the Unit responsible for the European Competition Network. Previously, he worked for the Belgian Competition Authority where he first was employed as a case handler in the investigation branch and later became a member of the decision-making branch. Before working in the area of competition enforcement, he was a teaching assistant at the European Law Institute of the University of Ghent. Jeroen Capiau holds a degree in Law (1998) and in Advanced Studies in European Law (1999) from the University of Ghent. He has published several articles on EU competition law and the law of the internal market.

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Mirta Kapural
Deputy Head of International Cooperation Department; Croatian Competition Authority

 

Mirta Kapural studied the Faculty of Law in Zagreb and post-graduate studies in Brighton, UK. She holds PhD in Competition Law and Company Law from University of Zagreb.  After her studies she acted as a legal adviser in the Ministry of European Integration and in the Government Office for Human Rights. Since 2004 she has worked for Croatian Competition Agency where she is responsible for bilateral co-operation with other countries and for multilateral co-operation (ICN, ECN). In addition to that she is a lecturer of EU and national competition law in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and at international conferences. She is interested in the area of competition law, company law, EU law and international relations. She is the author of several articles on EU Competition Law (Joint ventures, Cartels, Leniency, Private Enforcement and damages claims, Abuse of a dominant position).

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Jiří Kindl
Lawyer; Weil, Gotshal & Manges

 

Jiří Kindl works with the law firm WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES s.r.o.; he has specialized in the protection of competition. He graduated summa cum laude at the Law Faculty of Charles University in Prague. He also studied law at the University of Limerick in Ireland and the Magister Juris postgraduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College), where he received the Medal (Distinction) and the Clifford Chance Prize (Best Student of the Year in the Magister Juris program), Winter Williams Prize (Best Student in the subject of the European Business Regulation), and Monckton Chambers Prize (Best Student in the subject of Competition Law). He co-authored the publications Competition Law (Prague: C.H.Beck, 2006; 2012) and Act on the Protection of Competition, Commentary (Prague: C.H.Beck, 2007, 2010). He is also the author of a specialized monograph Cartel and Distribution Agreements (Prague: C.H.Beck, 2009). His articles on the subject of the protection of competition are on a regular basis published in the Czech Republic and abroad. He externally teaches the competition law at the Faculty of Law at the Charles University in Prague. He is regularly mentioned among the recommended lawyers in the area of competition in the Czech Republic in all relevant reference publications (Chambers Europe, PLC Which Lawyer? – Cross border competition, IFLR Guide – World's leading competition & antitrust lawyers, Best lawyers, etc.).

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Zuzana Šabová
Director of the second instance proceedings; Slovak Competition Authority

 

Zuzana Šabová has been working on Anti-Monopoly Office in Slovakia as Director of the second instance proceedings (the proceedings on the appeal against first instance decisions of the Authority). The jurisdiction of this department includes in particular organization of second instance proceedings, the preparation of second-level decisions and related agenda for the Council of the Antimonopoly Office. She started to work as a lawyer in 2000 in the Authority, she has been working as a Head of Department since 2003.

Zuzana Šabová graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava. She finished studies law in 2000 and gained the title JUDr. in 2003. At this faculty she also teaches as an external teacher Comparative Competition Law (comparative competition law).

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PANEL II:  COMPETITION IN HEALTH SERVICIES

 

Nathalie Maierhofer 
Austrian Competition Authority

 

Nathalie Maierhofer has been working as a case handler at the Austrian Competition Authority since 2012. She is currently responsible for cartel investigations as well as European and International affairs.

After finishing her studies of Business and Law in Vienna, she worked in several international law firms in Austria and Brussels, e.g Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, LLP in Brussels. A traineeship at the Directorate of Competition in Brussels rounded up her professional experience in the application of European Competition Law.

Nathalie Maierhofer is currently enrolled for a Doctorate at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in the field of European competition law.

 

Freek Bruggert
Case Handler; Netherlands Competition Authority

 

Frederik Bruggert graduated in Microeconomics and Competition Law at the Universities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

After his studies he worked as a lecturer in Economics at University of Utrecht.

From 2000 to 2003 he acted as a consultant in Netherlands Economic Institute where he provided economic advice to clients with respect to Competition Policy.

In 2003 he joined Netherlands Competition Authority where he has worked as Case Handler. 

He gained his experience in Merger Department, Expert Unit and Health Care Unit of the Competition Department.

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John Markham
Senior Associate; CMS Cameron McKenna

 

John Markham qualified into the CMS London competition team in 1998, having trained with the firm. Since then, he has advised predominantly on a wide range of EC and UK competition and merger control issues across a variety of industry sectors, in particular advising clients in the life sciences and consumer products industries.

John Markham has considerable experience of dealing with the European Commission and (in the UK) with the Office of Fair Trading, the Competition Commission and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, advising clients on investigations into cartels and into alleged abuse of dominance as well as on merger control procedure (including appeals of mergers) and market-wide investigations. John Markham frequently co-ordinates multi-jurisdictional filings to merger control authorities worldwide. John has particular expertise in advising on the application of the rules on distribution, supply and licensing agreements and in advising and presenting on product distribution strategy and pricing issues.

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Wilko Töllner
German Competition Authority

 

Wilko Töllner, LL.M. (Brugge) is a case handler in the 3rd Decision Division in the German Competition Authority competent for the health care sector.

Before joining the 3rd Decision Division, he was Head of Unit of the Special Unit for Combating Cartels in the German Competition Authority (General Policy Department) and a case handler in several departments of the Bundeskartellamt dealing mainly with the paper industry and the gambling sector.

He joined the German Competition Authority in 2009.

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Pavel Vepřek
Adviser to Minister of Health

 

After graduation from the Faculty of Pediatrics at Charles University, he joined the University Hospital Motol, where he worked as a junior doctor, a deputy chief of cardiology center, a deputy director of preventive care and a hospital director. He worked at University of Ottawa for a year and led projects of DRG implementation.

He is an author of the concept of a regulated market in the Czech health care. He led Tým DG plus Company that provided consultancy to health insurance companies and hospitals. In VZP Health Insurance Company he was the Head of Strategy and Development Department and was a member of working group on health care reform AIM, Brussels.

He is a chairman of the Association Citizen that seeks systematic changes in health care. He lectures health care economics seminars in CERGE-EI and health care funding at Academy of Health Care Management in Čelákovice. He works as an adviser to Minister of Health.

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Martti Tapani Virtanen
Deputy Director General; Finnish Competition Authority

 

Martti Virtanen graduated at the University of Amsterdam and Turku School of Economics and Business Administration.  He lectured the economics and law at the Lappeenranta University and University of Eastern Finland. He joined the Finnish Competition Authority in 1988 and since 2005 he has worked as Deputy Director General. Since the late 1990s Martti Virtanen’s work at the Finnish Competition Authority has largely focused on strategic issues and on the problems and challenges related to the marketization of publicly provided welfare services. Martti Virtanen has participated in the work of several Official Working Groups preparing legislative reforms of competition law. He is an author of 80 publications dealing with competition policy and law, and reform of health care and publicly provided services in general.

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Martin Vitula
Economist; Czech Competition Authority

 

Martin Vitula graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University.

He has worked as an economist at the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2001.

In 2004, he was placed in charge of Merger Department; from January to August 2007 he worked as the Director of Department I. of the Competition Section, where he focused on competition in the energy sector and industry.

Since September 2007, he has worked as the Director of Merger Department.

He has contributed to the elaboration of a number of documents published by the Office for the Protection of Competition, and took part in many conferences and workshops in the area of competition.

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PANEL III:  NEW PROCEDURAL INSTRUMENTS OF COMPETITION LAW

 

Igor Pospíšil
Lawyer; Czech Competition Authority

 

Igor Pospíšil completed his studies at the Masaryk University Brno, Law Faculty in 2001. Since 2001 he has been working as a lawyer at the Office for the Protection of Competition. From 2005 to 2008 he held the position of Head of the Working Group Professionals, and in years 2006 and 2007 he was Director of Department II, Competition Section I., later as Department of Manufacturing and Retail. Since 2007 he has been working as Director of the Cartel Department. In between 2004 and 2007 he was also acting as lector of Administration-procedural law, registered by the Ministry of the Interior.

He participated as an author at several documents issued by the Office for the Protection of Competition and as a speaker at different conferences and seminars in the area of competition law.

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Martin Abraham
Lawyer, Baker&McKenzie

 

Martin Abraham has extensive experience advising clients on Competition Law issues, including cartel, dominant position, concentration and public procurement proceedings before European, Czech and Slovak courts and competition authorities.

Martin Abraham has been a member ofthe Czech Bar Association since 2009. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague (Masters (“Mgr.”) in 2005, doctorate (“JUDr.”) in 2007).  In 2003-2004, Martin studied Competition and State Aid Law at l'Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). In 2012, Martin received a Postgraduate Diploma in EU Competition Law at King’s College, London (UK).

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Martin Nedelka
Lawyer; Schönherr s. r .o.

 

Martin Nedelka acts as a lawyer and a partner in Prague and Bratislava office of a law firm Schönherr. He works also in its office in Brussels.

He studied law at the Universities of Prague, Regensburg and Dublin.

He is a member of Czech Bar Association, Slovak Bar Association and Brussels Bar Association.

He focuses mainly on Czech, Slovak and EU competition law, public procurement law and regulatory matters – Czech, Slovak and EU energy law.

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Kristýna Oberfalcerová
Lawyer; ŘANDA HAVEL LEGAL

 

Kristýna Oberfalcerová graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague in 2005 (Mgr.) and obtained her doctorate degree in law in 2008. She is also a graduate from the Faculty of Law of Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne in Paris where she received her post-gradual degree in 2005, specializing in European law with the main focus on competition law and state aid. JuDr. Oberfalcerová also graduated from the Faculty of Law of Université Paris 2 – Panthéon Assas where she obtained her post-gradual master in European institutional law. Before joining ŘANDA HAVEL LEGAL, she worked for prominent international law firms in Prague.

She specializes in particular in competition law, public procurement law and problems of state aid. Her practice includes also commercial law, intellectual property law, labor law and European law including its implementation into the Czech legal system. Since October 2008, she has been a member of the Czech Bar Association.

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