2018 Conference in Bologna ACE@15
Time: Thursday/Friday 15-16 November 2018
Location: University of Bologna
The program included a Keynote virtual conversation between Lars-Hendrik Roller (Economic Advisor of Chancellor Merkel) and Tommaso Valletti (Chief Economist of DG COMP) on the role of economists in public decision-making.
ACE was celebrating its 15th year anniversary. The first plenary session therefore looked back at 15 years of economics in competition enforcement. The second plenary session focused on the future, with a panel discussion entitled “Competition economics in the 21st century – Digital platforms, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence – Will things really change?”
The conference also featured the ACE Best Paper Award and four parallel sessions covering 4 cases each (4*4).
The sixteen parallel sessions covered 5 merger cases, 7 antitrust cases, 1 state aid study and 3 Court cases:
- Merger of real estate platforms in France (Seloger/Logicimmo)
- EU and German cement mergers (Arcelor/Ilva and Schwenk/Opterra)
- Global merger in semiconductors (Qualcomm/NXP)
- Merger of retail grocery with vertical concerns in the UK (Tesco/Bookers)
- Rejected complaint of predatory pricing in France (Transdev/Ouibus)
- Online platform competition: exclusivity clauses in Germany ticketing platforms (CTS Eventim)
- Excessive pricing in pharmaceuticals – Italy (Aspen)
- Collusion in Serbian sunflower oil
- Collusion in in financial derivatives in Spain
- Bid rigging in construction work in Switzerland
- The Google Android decision
- The impact of state aid on competition
- Cartel damages in high voltage cables in UK courts (Britned vs. ABB)
- Determination of FRAND rates in SEP litigation in UK courts (Unwired vs. Huawei)
- Preferential treatment by online platforms in Dutch courts (VBO vs. Funda)