Liability of online intermediaries: should exceptionalism end?

Bruno Liebhaberg is Executive Chairman of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010.

From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market.

He holds a Master’s in management sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

¹Also representing B.LIEBHABERG S.A., Director General

²Member of the Strategic Committee

Ms Astola has been Director-General for Justice and Consumers at the European Commission since 1 February 2016. The DG deals with civil justice, including contract and company law, criminal justice, fundamental rights, including data protection and free movement, equality and consumer law and policy.

Before joining the Commission, Ms Astola was Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Justice, with overall responsibility for both international and domestic law matters, including courts and prisons.

Prior to that, she headed units responsible for civil law and European law at the Department of Legislation of the Ministry and has also worked for the Finnish Ministry of Finance and the Finnish Foreign Trade Association.

Miriam Buiten is a CERRE Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. She leads a research team on “Platform Governance”, funded by the University of St.Gallen Basic Research Fund. Her research focuses on the legal issues surrounding new technologies and artificial intelligence and the role of competition law in regulating the digital economy.

Previously, Miriam was a Junior Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim. She has been involved in several policy studies for the European Commission and the Dutch government on topics such as the role of online intermediaries in the ecommerce sector and mechanisms to reduce regulatory burdens.

Alexandre de Streel is the Academic Director of the digital research programme at the Brussels think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), professor of European law at the University of Namur and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. He sits in the scientific committees of the Knight-Georgetown Institute (US), the European University Institute-Centre for a Digital Society (Italy) and the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (Germany).

His main research areas are regulation and competition policy in the digital economy (telecommunications, platforms and data) as well as the legal issues raised by the developments of artificial intelligence. He regularly advises the European Union and international organisations on digital regulation.

Previously, Alexandre held visiting positions at New York University Law School, the European University Institute in Florence, Panthéon-Assas (Singapore campus), Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the University of Louvain. He also worked for the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union, and the European Commission. He has also been the chair of the expert group on the online platform economy, advising the European Commission.

Prof. Dr. Jan Bernd Nordemann is an attorney and an Honorary Professor of German & European IP/copyright law at the Humboldt University of Berlin.

He is known as one of the leading copyright lawyers in Germany and is also well known in antitrust law. In this area, he works primarily on the interface with intellectual property law and in particular on the antitrust law compliance of licensing agreements, R&D contracts, distribution agreements, and self-regulation by media associations.