Breakfast Seminar Series: Hot Topics in Competition Economics

Compass Lexecon is hosting a series of in-person breakfast seminars across our European offices, delving into the economics of the latest developments in competition policy and antitrust.

Upcoming sessions:

Carbon pricing in Europe in the context of the Clean Industrial Deal: key issues and way forward on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the reform of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)

Compass Lexecon Brussels Office

17 September 2025 | 08:30 – 10:00 CEST | In-person only 

The higher costs of carbon and energy in Europe compared to other regions in the world have fuelled policy debates in the context of the new State aid framework accompanying the Clean Industrial Deal (CISAF), adopted on 25 June 2025 by the European Commission (EC).

The European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) regulation is currently under review in its transitional phase (2023-2025) with a series of studies considering its sectoral and product coverage.

In parallel, the EC has launched a public consultation in April 2025 to prepare for the review of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) and the Market Stability Reserve planned for 2026.

In this seminar, Fabien Roques and Florian Bourcier will provide perspectives on current regulatory and economic issues faced by the EU ETS and the CBAM, as well as the key challenges they entail for EU industries.

Compass Lexecon experts will in particular draw on the findings of their recent report "The EU CBAM: A review of the EU CBAM’s economic principles, expected impacts and outstanding issues" as well as contributions to the "2025 State of the EU ETS" report. They will highlight the role of economists in relation to the assessment of the policy choices underpinning the EU ETS and the CBAM evolutions.

Should GenAI developers pay to train their models on copyright protected content?

Compass Lexecon London Office

9 October 2025 | 08:30 – 10:00 BST | In-person only

Generative AI (Gen AI) models rely on vast amounts of original content for training, raising fundamental questions about licensing and intellectual property rights. In our upcoming seminar, Kadambari Prasad and Justin Coombs will draw on experience from licensing disputes across industries to break down the debate into questions that parties and policy makers must address, and consider how the answers may vary depending on market dynamics.