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32nd Competition Policy Conference takes place
AmCham EU’s Competition Policy Committee was delighted to host its 32nd Annual Competition Policy Conference on Tuesday 13 October. This year’s event focused on the renaissance of vertical restraints in EU competition law enforcement, addressing in particular the intersection with internet selling.
The event opened with a luncheon keynote address delivered by Judge Nicholas Forwood QC, UK Judge of the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union (until 7 October 2015), who provided reflections on the relationship between the General Court and DG Competition.
The first panel of the afternoon centred on enforcement issues raised by recent vertical restraints cases, featuring Gunnar Kallfaß, Head of Unit, German and European Antitrust Law, Bundeskartellamt; Rainer Becker, Acting Head of Unit, Antitrust case support and policy, Policy and Strategy, DG Competition and Jorge Padilla, Senior Managing Director and Head of Compass Lexecon, Europe. The discussion was moderated by Kristina Nordlander, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP.
The second panel moved onto a discussion on the evolving relationship between enforcement and policy tools being employed by the Commission and the Member States. The speakers were Rainer Becker, Acting Head of Unit, Antitrust case support and policy, Policy and Strategy, DG Competition; Pascale Déchamps, Partner, Oxera and Marco D’Ostuni, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. The panel was moderated by Jay Modrall, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.
Opening and closing remarks were respectively delivered by Salomé Cisnal de Ugarte, Vice Chair of the Board of AmCham EU and Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP and Kaarli Eichhorn, Vice-Chair of the AmCham EU Competition Policy Committee and Executive Counsel, Competition Law and Government Relations, GE.
View photos of the conference here.