Competition Economics 2012 Conference: How to Use Economics and Economists in Competition Law

It is a fact of life that practicing antitrust in Europe these days requires a good dose of integrated law and economics.

As competition cases become more complex at EU and national level, both professions can’t do without the other, and mutual understanding of each other’s thought processes and methodologies for assessing issues is crucial to succeed.

Attend this conference to:

• Gain comprehensive guidance to assessing damages in private litigation cases as well as calculation of damages
•  Achieve clarification over the timing and nature of submission for economic evidence and the Commission’s best practice in preparing economic evidence
• Overcome the varied challenges of use of economics in cartels and prepare your response to the role of economics in by object infringement cases
• Develop an applicable strategy for merger control with practical insights on developments and controversies in unilateral effects
• Gain a thorough understanding on the latest in economics of market investigations
• Achieve clarification on the move to effects-based enforcement in abuse of dominance
• Receive a full review of the economics of patent wars and other IP-related issues

For more information please see the Competition Economics 2012 event agenda today.

The EU’s administrative body is run by an economist -- DG Italianer -- and now has its third generation team under Chief Economist Kühn well-entrenched in day-to-day affairs. Its ever-growing group of economists is now part of cases covering Article 101, 102, merger control and state aid, driving some of the hardest substantive issues and more often than not influencing the outcome of an investigation.

Equally, the national regulators like the OFT have long had mixed teams of lawyers and economists.

And the role of economics is not limited to the administrative investigation: experts have become a common sight during the EU appeals process in Luxemburg, and also national judges hearing damages claims have received a steady dose of economic expertise when it comes to arguing impact, pass on, damages, and so forth.