Device neutrality: issues and policy options

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

Professor Yoo is the Chestnut Professor of Law, Communication, and Computer & Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also heads the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition.

He is one of the most cited scholars in administrative and regulatory law and intellectual property. Professor Yoo testifies frequently before the US Congress, US regulatory and enforcement agencies, and foreign governments.

He is a graduate of Harvard College, the Anderson School at UCLA, and the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Before entering the academy, Professor Yoo clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States and practiced law at a D.C. law firm under the supervision of now-Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr.

Jan Krämer is an Academic Co-Director at CERRE and a Professor at the University of Passau, Germany, where he holds the chair of Internet & Telecommunications Business.

Previously, he headed a research group on telecommunications markets at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), where he also obtained a diploma degree in Business and Economics Engineering with a focus on computer science, telematics and operations research, and a Ph.D. in Economics, both with distinction.

He is editor and author of several interdisciplinary books on the regulation of telecommunications markets and has published numerous articles in the premier scholarly journals in Information Systems, Economics, Management and Marketing research on issues such as net neutrality, data and platform economy, and the design of electronic markets.

Professor Krämer has served as academic consultant for leading firms in the telecommunications and Internet industry, as well as for governmental institutions, such as the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and the European Commission.

His current research focuses on the role of data for competition and innovation in online markets and the regulation of online platforms.

Sébastien Soriano is Chairman of Arcep, the French regulatory authority for telecommunications, and was formerly Chair and Vice Chair of BEREC.

He was the Chief of Staff to Fleur Pellerin, during the latter’s time as French Minister for SMEs, Innovation and Digital Economy.

He also served a Special Advisor to the French Minister for Culture and Communication.

Owen Bennett is International Online Safety lead at Ofcom, the UK’s independent communications regulator. Previously, Owen was a senior policy manager at Mozilla, the public benefit technology company and maker of the Firefox web browser. He is based in London, and prior to that he spent eight years in Brussels’ EU quarter.

His substantive expertise is policy issues related to the regulation of illegal and harmful content online, but he has worked across the full range of contemporary digital policy issues, including cybersecurity; competition; and privacy.

He holds a first class LL.M degree in Information Technology law from the University of Edinburgh. He also holds a first class honours undergraduate major degree in Philosophy and a second class honours undergraduate minor degree in Economics from Trinity College Dublin.

Wassim Chourbaji is Senior Vice President of Government Affairs & Public Policy EMENA at Qualcomm.

He is the Managing Director of the EU Brussels Office and oversees Qualcomm’s public policy, regulatory affairs and senior government relations.

He is also currently Chairman of the Communications Infrastructure Council of TechUK, the policy arm of the UK digital industry.

Frederick De Backer is Manager of Regulatory Affairs at Telefónica’s Brussels office since 2007.

Prior to that, he was employed as a Strategy Manager at Telefónica in Madrid. In Spain, he has also worked for McKinsey & Company in a variety of sectors. He began his career as a researcher at Siemens.

Mr De Backer obtained a PhD at the University of Cantabria, a Master in engineering at the University of Ghent and a bachelor in philosophy at the UNED.

Lisa Felton leads the public policy strategy and engagement with policy makers in relation to major policy programmes and digital and telecoms regulation for Vodafone across its global footprint.

She has over 20 years’ experience as a lawyer and in policy both within Vodafone and in private practice.

She is a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, Chair of the GSMA Mobile Commerce Operator Expert Group and holds an MA from Oxford University in Law and a Masters in International Law of Human Rights.

Maryant Fernandez is a lawyer and Senior Digital Policy Officer at the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). She is also the interim EU Co-Chair of the TACD’s Information Society Policy Committee, an Advisory Board member of the Data Protection On The Ground Chair at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a member of the Steering Group of the NetCompetition Alliance.

Ms Fernandez previously worked as a Senior Policy Advisor at European Digital Rights (EDRi) and was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Trade Agreements.

Per Hellstrom is Senior Legal Director EMEIA at Apple, in charge of commercial and competition law in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India.

He previously served at the European Commission, most recently in DG Competition, heading the Antitrust Unit dealing with Information industries, Internet and consumer electronics.

Prior to that he was a member of the Legal Service of the European Commission, providing legal advice in the area of mergers and antitrust, as well as representing the Commission before the Community Courts.

Massimiliano Kadar is Deputy Head of Unit ‘Antitrust: Telecoms’ at the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission, and a visiting lecturer at King’s College London.

Between 2011 and 2018, Mr Kadar worked as case handler on both antitrust and merger control cases in a variety of sectors at the European Commission, and before then in private practice at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners.

He has published several articles on competition policy and is a graduate of Bocconi University and King’s College London.

Johan Keetelaar is Director of Public Policy, Connectivity & Access EMEA at Facebook. In this role, he oversees Facebook’s policy activities in Europe, Middle-East and Africa, primarily in the field of connectivity.

Prior to this, Mr Keetelaar was Director of Regulation and Competition at the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM). He also worked at the Netherlands Independent Post and Telecommunications Authority (OPTA) as the Director of Markets. Prior to that, he worked in the telecommunications and aviation industry for almost ten years.

He holds a Master’s degree in Econometrics from the University of Amsterdam.

Vincent Toubiana is Advisor at l’Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des Postes (Arcep) where he works in the ‘Economic analysis and digital foresight’ unit.

From 2013 to 2017 he was a technologist at CNIL (the French Data Protection Authority). In 2016, he was an international fellow at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Before that, he was a researcher at Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs and undertook a postdoc at New-York University with professor Helen Nissenbaum.

He completed his doctorate at Telecom ParisTech.