Digital conglomerates and EU competition policy

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

Marc Bourreau is a Academic Co-Director at CERRE and Professor of Economics at Télécom Paris (Institut Polytechnique de Paris). He is affiliated with the interdisciplinary institute for innovation (i3) for his research.

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

Marc holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Paris Panthéon Assas.

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.

Wolfgang Kerber is Professor of Economics at Philipps-University Marburg since 1997.

After receiving his Ph.D. at the University Erlangen-Nürnberg, he was Director of the Walter-Eucken-Institut in Freiburg, and Professor of Economics at the Ruhr-University Bochum. He has conducted research in competition policy, evolutionary and innovation economics, law and economics, and European integration.

His main fields of research include multi-level legal systems and regulatory competition, competition policy (especially in regard to innovation and intellectual property), and regulatory problems in the digital economy, particularly in regard to data governance, competition, and privacy.

Alexandre Verheyden is Partner-in-Charge of the Brussels Office and coordinates Jones Day’s competition practice in Europe.

With a focus on antitrust and competition law and significant experience in transatlantic mergers and cartels, he represents major corporations and governments before the European Commission, European courts, and national authorities.

He has served as co-chair of the Communications Committee of the International Bar Association. He was a winner of the 2012 Antitrust Writing Awards for the article “EU Court of Justice Provides Guidance on Abusive Margin Squeezes” and was a scholarship recipient of the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

He was previously admitted to the New York State Bar.

Alexis Walckiers is Chief Economist at the Belgian Competition authority. He also teaches Microeconomics at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (Université libre de Bruxelles) as a visiting professor and is a member of the research centre ECARES.

He has published several papers in competition and economic journals, including the Journal of the European Economic Association. He has previously advised the Minister of Economic Affairs on competition issues and has worked for Oxera, an economic consultancy.

Riccardo Falconi is Legal Director Western & Southern Europe, EU Legal Affairs & EMEA Antitrust at Uber.

Prior to joining Uber, he spent five years in Paris as Senior Legal & Regulatory Counsellor for Euronext. Before that, he co-founded an entrepreneurial venture in New Zealand and spent four prior years as a corporate associate in the international law firm Linklaters in Luxembourg.

Mr Falconi studied law at Université Paris 2, Panthéon-Assas, and completed an LL.M. in corporate and capital markets law at New York University.

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.

Cornelia Kutterer is Senior Director, European Government Affairs, Rule of Law & Responsible Tech at Microsoft. She is responsible for the group’s privacy and digital policies in the EU with a focus on strategic campaigns and engagements.

She leads a team working on corporate affairs and policy matters, including institutional relations, the Digital Single Market and market regulation, artificial intelligence, privacy and human rights, intermediary liability and content moderation.

She has long standing experience in Information Society & Internet policies at the European level and speaks regularly at regional and international conferences.

Beatriz Sanz Fernandez-Vega is Head of Competition & Data Policy at Telefónica.

From July 2012 to July 2014, she was a Senior Legal and Competition Counsellor at Telefónica Europe, reporting to the General Counsel.

Between 2000 and 2012, she served as Competition Counsellor for several companies in the Telefónica Group, practicing competition law (antitrust, merger control and state aid) as well as telecoms regulatory law, unfair competition, advertising law and litigation.