Trade & investment

ICC sponsors roundtable on shaping competition rules

  • 20 May 2009

Improving cooperation between government agencies and the private sector in shaping competition rules will be the subject of an upcoming ICC sponsored roundtable in Switzerland next month.

The roundtable, to be held on 2 June in Zurich in conjunction with the 8th annual conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), will also discuss how government agencies enforce and apply competition rules.

Representatives from government competition agencies are expected to discuss how they currently see cooperation with the private sector in competition law enforcement and how this cooperation can be improved. Also on the agenda are the challenges agencies face and efforts by the European Commission to increase private enforcement in the European Union.

“This is a unique opportunity for the private sector and competition agencies to sit down together and discuss how they can better cooperate to improve the competition system,” said   James F Rill, Vice-Chair of the ICN task force and a former US Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust .

“With the high-level of representation from competition agencies worldwide and excellent speakers from the private sector, we look forward to a very stimulating and open exchange that will make a constructive contribution to ICN’s work,”   Mr Rill added.

The roundtable, intended to be an open discussion among participants, will also look into current governmental agency processes and practices and focus on how these operate to best facilitate co-operation by businesses in the enforcement process. One likely issue is whether information gathering and market testing procedures operate in a way that achieves full co-operation.

Confirmed speakers from government agencies include Melanie Aitken, Interim Commissioner, Canadian Competition Bureau; Yong-Ho Baek, Chairman of the Korean Fair Trade Commission; Dhanendra Kumar, Chairperson, Competition Commission of India; Olavo Chinaglia, Board Member of CADE, Brazil; Sarah Court, Commissioner, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission,  Randolph W. Tritell, Director, Office of International Affairs, US Federal Trade Commission and Carles Esteva Mosso, Acting Director for Policy and Strategy, EC Directorate General for Competition.

Representatives from the private sector who will be intervening include: Karl Hofstetter, General Counsel, Schindler; Paul Lugard, Head of Antitrust, Philips International B.V.; Klaus Becher, General Counsel, Daimler Financial Services; Anne Riley, Associate General Counsel Antirust, Shell; Calvin S. Goldman, Partner, Blakes, Cassels and Graydon; Barbara Rosenberg, Barbosa, Mussnich & Aragao; and Michael D. Blechman, Partner, Kaye Scholer.