Innovation Economics for Antitrust Lawyers

Friday, February 23, 2018
London, UK

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The 2nd edition of this annual conference, organised by Concurrences Review, brought together antitrust enforcers, lawyers, academics and economists to discuss the implications of the latest developments in digital and technology on antitrust policy.

Speakers included Andrea Coscelli (CMA), Roger Alford (US DoJ), Carles Esteva Mosso (DG Comp), Andreas Mundt (Bundeskartellamt), Sheldon Mills (CMA), Richard Whish QC (Kings College London), Frédéric Jenny (OECD) and Ariel Ezrachi (Slaughterand May Professor of Competition Law).

Compass Lexecon speakers included Nadine Watson, Miguel de la Mano, John Davies and Kirsten Edwards-Warren.

Bitcoin, Blockchain…: Which Antitrust Policy for the Fintechs?

Miguel spoke on this panel about Open Banking: a standard format of third-party access to banking data that is part of European legislation (second Payment Services Directive - PSD2). Open Banking works via APIs. Miguel discussed the consumer benefits (e.g., money management, reduced information asymmetry, quicker payments) as well as risks (e.g. collusion, reduced security, data privacy issues, big tech opportunities) related to Open Banking.

Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare: Is Excessive Pricing an Antitrust Issue?
John presented ‘Excessive uncertainty? – Is the excessive pricing prohibition sufficiently well-defined to be useful?’ He discussed the four stages of analysis required to find an excessive pricing infringement and criticised the application by competition authorities in some recent (UK) cases.

Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence: Beyond Facilitating Concerted Practices, Can they Help Cartels Busters?
Kirsten spoke about the topic of Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence in the context of cartel discovery. She discussed 10 recent EC and 10 recent UK cartels, their discovery, mode of operation, whether data was public and the likelihood of the cartel being detected by A/AI.