Conference Debriefing (38): Professors Go Karellamt

By: Rupprecht Podszun (D’Kart)

What place does economics have in competition law – and especially in abuse of dominance cases? When this question is discussed in Germany, good entertainment is guaranteed. The Bundeskartellamt, the Federal Cartel Office, is not exactly notorious globally for its more economic approach. It invited the German-speaking antitrust world to the debate. The whole antitrust world? No, lawyers from law firms and companies were left out. But Rupprecht Podszun was there – and reports.

Name of the event: Working Group on Competition Law of the Federal Cartel Office – as this name might raise questions (the Office needs a working group to deal with competition law?) the conference is informally known as the “Professorentagung” – the Professors’ Gathering. In German, the name that unmistakably dates back to times when there were no female competition law professors. Fortunately, that has changed.

Topic: “Guidelines on Article 102 TFEU – New benchmarks for abuse control” (The Office’s working paper on this is available here).

Place & time: House of the Protestant Church, Bonn, 28 September 2023

Host: Prof. Dr Konrad Ost, Vice President of the Bundeskartellamt, with Silke Hossenfelder, Head of the Policy Department…

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