Economisation of Competition Law – International Conference on Competition Law at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law
07.01.2009
The aims of European competition law as well as the broadly shifting reform agenda of EU competition law policy will be examined during an international and interdisciplinary conference at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. On 23 and 24 January scholars from in- and outside Germany, officials of the European Commission, representatives of national competition agencies and a judge of the European Court of First Instance will speak at a conference titled, „Structure and Effects in EU Competition Law – Studies on Exclusionary Conduct an State Aid“. The conference, to be conducted in English, will offer both scholarly and practical perspectives and begins on 23 January at 10.45 in the MPI for Private Law at Mittelweg 187. The Commission of the European Community has since the end of the 1990's pursued a reform agenda which has led to broad changes in European competition law policy. A central axis of this reform has been an increasing economisation of competition law. Also known as "the more economic approach", this paradigm shift has found expression, for example, in the newly drafted Merger Regulation (139/2004) and in the regulations for evaluating horizontal mergers. In the course of 2008 this reorientation of the European Commission was further solidified in respect of EC state aid law and the regulation of exclusionary practices by dominant firms (Art. 82 EC).It is against this background that Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Basedow has, with the assistance of Dr. Wolfgang Wurmnest, organised an international and interdisciplinary conference to be held on 23 and 24 January 2009 at the Hamburg MPI: „Structure and Effects in EU Competition Law – Studies on Exclusionary Conduct and State Aid“. Alongside foundational presentations on the aims of European competition and state aid law, the speakers will examine the legal and economic implications of this reorientation as concerns selected exclusionary practices of dominant firms and selected problems of state aid control.
The Speakers and their Topics:
• Mr. Carles Esteva Mosso,(European Commission, Acting Director, DG Competition, Brussels):
"The more economic approach paradigm"
• Mr. Christian Ewald,(Head of the Economic Unit of the General Policy Division of the Bundeskartellamt, Bonn): Commentary
• Prof. Dr. Justus Haucap,(Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg): "Regional aid"
• Prof. Dr. h.c. Martin Hellwig,(Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods): "Rebates"
• Mr. Giorgio Monti,(London School of Economics and Political Science): "The dominance threshold"
• Prof. Dr. Damien Neven,(European Commission, Chief Economist, DG Competition, Brussels):
"The Commission guidelines on Article 82 EC"
• Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schwalbe,(Universität Hohenheim):
"The State aid action plan"
• Prof. Dr. Piet Jan Slot,(Universiteit Leiden):
"The general block exemption regulation"
• Dr. Wolfgang Wurmnest,(Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law):
"Predatory pricing"
• Prof. Dr. Daniel Zimmer,(Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn):
"Protection of competition v. maximizing (consumer) welfare"
• Prof. Dr. Josef Azizi (Court of First Instance, Judge): Round Table on State aid
• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kerber,(Philipps-Universität Marburg): Round Table on State aid
• Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kühling,(Universität Regensburg): Round Table on State aid
• Dr. Lukas Repa,(European Commission, Case Officer, DG Competition, Brussels): Round Table on State aid
The conference is being sponsored by the Frankfurter FAZIT-Stiftung. Established in 1959, the foundation supports research, scholarship, training and education as well as universities, technical schools and research institutes of the Max Planck Society. Also receiving funding from the FAZIT-Stiftung are museums and cultural exhibits.
About the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law:
The Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law is dedicated to performing foundational research in the areas of comparative, European and international private law, commercial law, business law and procedural law. It accomplishes its mission by methodically analyzing foreign legal systems and by comparing them both with German law and with each other. An important goal of the research performed at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg is to explore the possibilities of legal harmonization within Europe and worldwide. In view of increasing globalization this is a task of great academic and practical significance. The Institute library possesses one of the most comprehensive collections of civil law literature to be found in the world. www.mpipriv.de
Contacts for the Media:
Press and Public Relations
Nicola Wesselburg,
Juliane Koop
Mittelweg 187
20148 Hamburg
Tel.: 040/41900-367 (-377)
presse@mpipriv.de
Internet: www.mpipriv.de