Assessing the market power of digital platforms

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.

Jens-Uwe Franck is Professor of Law at the University of Mannheim and Senior Member of the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation.

While his main research focus is in the field of competition law, he regularly engages in research projects on cross-cutting issues that concern the legal constitution of markets.

His research is characterised by a comparative approach and an openness to interdisciplinary work, particularly collaboration with economists. Current research projects focus on the challenges to market regulation posed by the rise of digital platforms.

Professor Martin Peitz is a former CERRE Research Fellow and Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim. He is also a Director of the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation.

His policy research focuses on digital markets, regulation, and competition economics.

Martin holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn.

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

Paul Belleflamme is Professor of Economics at Université catholique de Louvain.

His main research area is theoretical industrial organisation, with a special focus on innovation in the digital economy (which is also the main topic of his blog, www.IPdigIT.eu).

Professor Belleflamme has published widely in leading economics journals and is, with Martin Peitz, the author of Industrial Organization: Markets and Strategies (Cambridge University Press, 2010 and 2015).

Wim De Rynck is Director of Regulatory Markets & Developments at Proximus, Belgium’s main telecom operator.

He has more than twenty years’ experience in telecommunications, of which the past 15 years have been in regulatory affairs, mainly focusing on issues regarding fixed and mobile access, broadband, NGA developments, market analysis and European regulation.

Mr De Rynck holds a Masters in Communication Sciences and a Masters in Law from Université Libre de Bruxelles, ULB.

Conor Flanagan is Economic Advisor at Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator which he joined in 2016.

Prior to that, Mr Flanagan worked at the UK’s competition authorities (Competition and Markets Authority, Competition Commission and Office of Fair Trading).

He started his career in the UK’s Government Economic Service and holds an economics degree from Trinity College Dublin and M.Sc. from University College London.

Jean Gonié is Director of Europe Public Policy at Snap Inc. Prior to joining Snap, he was the Public Policy Director of Amazon in France, where he was also a member of the Management Team for almost three years.

Before that, Mr Gonié held several positions within Microsoft, including in Government Affairs in France; Director of Privacy Policy for Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Worldwide Public Sector Director for Privacy, based at Microsoft’s headquarters in the US.

Prior to that, Mr. Gonié worked at the Legal Department of the French Data Protection Authority (the CNIL) and was a staff member of French members of the Parliament.

Mr. Gonié was also a lecturer and professor of Privacy and Internet Law at Sciences Po Paris and University Sorbonne. He is currently a French foreign trade adviser and a member of the Board of the French Tech Amsterdam.

Grania Holzwarth is head of EU competition policy for Deutsche Telekom in Brussels. As part of the international competition team at DT, her focus has been on ongoing competition cases in the field of telecoms mergers and antitrust cases in the ICT sector in the EU and US, as well as the development of competition policy in the context of digitalisation.

Beyond that, she is the Chair of ETNO´s Competition Policy Taskforce and the Vice Chair of ICLA’s EU chapter.

Gábor Koltay is an economist in the Chief Economist Team at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition (DG Comp) since 2013.

In this role, he has worked on cases such as Google Shopping, Google AdSense, Praxair/Linde, Deutsche Börse/LSE, AB InBev/SAB Miller, Ball/Rexam, INEOS/Solvay.

Before joining DG Comp, Mr Koltay served as an economist in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs.

He holds a PhD from the Central European University of Budapest.

Bart Noé works as a Senior Strategy Advisor at the Dutch Authority for Consumers & Markets.

Digitalisation and the role of competition and consumer law protection are among his main interests. He previously worked at ACM’s competition department where his main focus was on ACM’s strategy and enforcement priorities for vertical agreements.

Before joining ACM, he worked as a policy advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Mr Noé holds a M.Sc. in Organic Chemistry from Leiden University.