How should Europe address gatekeeping platforms?

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

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.

Amelia Fletcher CBE is a Professor of Competition Policy at the Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia and co-editor of the Journal of Competition Law and Economics. She also acts as an expert witness.

She has been a Non-Executive Director at the UK Competition and Markets Authority (2016-2023), Financial Conduct Authority (2013-20) and Payment Systems Regulator (2014-20), and a member of Ofgem’s Enforcement Decision Panel (2014-2022). She has also been a member of DG Comp’s Economic Advisory Group on Competition Policy, and was a member of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, commissioned by the UK Treasury and led by Jason Furman, which reported in March 2019.

She was previously Chief Economist at the Office of Fair Trading (2001-2013), where she also spent time leading the OFT’s Mergers and Competition Policy teams. Before joining the OFT, she was an economic consultant at Frontier Economics (1999-2001) and London Economics (1993-1999).

She has written and presented widely on competition and consumer policy. In her ongoing research, Amelia has a particular interest in the implications for competition and consumer policy of behavioural economics and online markets.

Amelia has a DPhil and MPhil in economics from Nuffield College, Oxford.

Marieke Scholz is Deputy Head of Unit ‘Antitrust Case Support & Policy’ at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition.

Having worked in private practice in a Brussels law firm, she joined the European Commission in 2007 where she has primarily working on antitrust enforcement and policy with a particular focus on the IT and telecommunications sector.

Prabhat Agarwal is Head of Unit “Digital Services and Platforms” at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT.

He comes from a background of academic and industrial research, covering a broad range of fundamental science and commercial high-tech projects. He joined the European Commission in 2007 and has since then covered a variety of digital innovation and regulatory areas.

He holds a Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Cambridge.

Nicholas Blades is Director of Regulation, Competition & Data Policy, responsible for a multi-disciplinary regulatory team based in Madrid, Brussels and London.

His regulatory responsibilities include sector regulatory frameworks, spectrum policy and specialist economic analysis, while his competition and data policy functions span mergers and competition law policies, copyright, data privacy and audio-visual media services.

He joined O2 UK in 2004 and has undertaken a variety of regulatory and management roles within the business, always with a strong strategic focus.

Axel Desmedt is the President of the Belgian Competition Authority since 1 March 2024.

Before that, he was a member of the BIPT Council (the Belgian telecoms and postal regulator) for 14 years (two consecutive mandates), where he respectively lead the spectrum, telecoms & media, consumer and postal market services, in addition to the legal and HR services. He led several spectrum auctions in Belgium and introduced some several ground-breaking regulatory projects, such as the first successful cable access regulation in Europe. During his tenures Axel Desmedt helped preparing a number of major legislative reforms in both the postal and telecoms sectors which were adopted by the Government and Parliament. He oversaw some of the major economic and administrative disputes both for the BIPT and the Belgian State in the telecoms and postal sectors.

Axel Desmedt started as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar practicing for more than eight years in two different law firms, where he specialised mainly in EU competition and WTO law. He then joined a major European telecommunications group in-house as a Senior Legal Council and Deputy Director for the group’s permanent representation to the EU.

Axel Desmedt lectured as a visiting professor at UCL (2015-2020) and KUL (2020-2021). He was the co-founder and editor of the Tijdschrift voor het recht van netwerkindustrieën/ Revue du droit des indsutries de réseau. Since 2023, Axel Desmedt is a Fellow of the Free University of Brussels (VUB), where he graduated in law in 1996. He also holds an LLM from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA).

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.

Joos Francke manages the ‘Telecom & Digitalisation’ team at the Netherlands Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM).

His work on telecoms regulation includes the analysis of telecom markets, regulating access to networks as well as safeguarding net neutrality. He was also responsible for the ACM market study into app stores and is involved in the program to oversee potential competition problems in the digital economy.

Mr Francke also worked for OPTA, one of the predecessors of the ACM. Previously, he also worked for KPMG as an economic advisor in regulated sectors.

He is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam, where he studied econometrics and economics.

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.

Stephane Lhermitte is Director of Economy, Markets & Digital at Arcep.

In 2008, Stéphane joined the National Treasury where he was in charge of the Office of Financial Research, before being appointed Head of the Economic Department of the French Embassy in Portugal. He later became Head of the Fixed Market Regulation Unit, and subsequently Head of the Mobile Market Unit.

Stephane is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, Ensae ParisTech and Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

Professor Antonio Nicita is a Member of the Board at the Italian Regulatory Authority AGCOM and a Professor of Economic Policy at the Department of Economics and Law at Sapienza University, Rome.

He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Society of Law and Economics, European Association of Law and Economics and of the International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE).

Previously, he was an Associate Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Siena, Visiting Fulbright Professor at Yale University and a Non-Governmental Adviser of International Competition Network (ICN) for the report on telecommunications sector.

He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Siena, Italy.

Olivia Regnier has been Director of EU Regulatory Affairs at Spotify in Brussels since May 2017. She is in charge of Spotify’s policy in Europe, covering issues including e-Commerce, platforms regulation, copyright, data protection and taxation.

She is also Chair of Digital Music Europe, an association and representing European digital music services.

Previously, she was Director of the European Office of IFPI, representing the recording industry worldwide, and led the industry’s policy work in the EU on copyright reform, e-Commerce, enforcement and licensing.

Agustín Reyna is Head of Legal and Economic Affairs at The European Consumer Organisation, BEUC.

Within BEUC, he supervises four policy teams (Financial Services, Digital, Consumer Rights and Consumer Redress and Enforcement) and coordinates the organisation’s work on competition law enforcement and policy.

He is responsible for providing the consumer viewpoint to the European Commission’s competition directorate in high-profile cases affecting consumer markers.

In 2017, Agustín was elected co-EU chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, a network of over 75 organisations representing consumers’ interest in the US and the EU.

Petra Wikström is Director of Public Policy at the Nordic mediaand digital consumer brands group Schibsted.

Ms Wikström has extensive experience in working with EU policy for several Nordic media companies, both as a self-employed consultant as well as head of public affairs for the largest commercial broadcasters in Sweden and Finland.

She has worked at various media associations both in London and Brussels and has been member of the board of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT).