Friday

KEYNOTE SPEECH

Prof. Nicolas Diebold, University of Lucerne, Member of the Swiss Competition Commission WEKO, Switzerland

PANELS

Exchange of information through public channels: Navigating competition law risks in a (overly?) transparent world

In an era defined by digital transparency and rapid information dissemination, companies frequently communicate with the market through public channels—such as earnings calls, investor briefings, published price lists, and press releases. While these disclosures are often necessary for regulatory compliance and stakeholder engagement, they seem to have recently caught the eyes of competition law enforcers as well. The aim of this panel is to examine the delicate balance between legitimate public communications and the alleged risk of unlawful information exchange that could facilitate collusion or reduce market uncertainty among competitors.

Moderator: Ami Paanajärvi, Roschier, Finland

Panelists:

• Preben Milde Thorbjørnsen, Wikborg Rein, Norway
• Petra Linsmeier, Gleiss Lutz, Germany
• Dirk Middelschulte, VP Global Chief Counsel Competition, Unilever, Brussels

From bright lines to blurred lines: Dealing with below-threshold concentrations

Advising on below-threshold concentrations is becoming increasingly complicated. Different call-in regimes and active enforcement under articles 101 and 102 TFEU affect legal certainty. Navigating the changing landscape is a far cry from the simple threshold analysis that used to be common in continental Europe. This session explores several topics regarding recent developments in the field of merger control, attempting to provide practical solutions to promote legal certainty for our clients. Those topics include: How are we anticipating and handling Towercast-investigations? How do call-in powers affect transactions and timelines? Can we agree on a preferred model that addresses legitimate competition concerns and provides sufficient clarity to undertakings?

Moderator: Tim Raats, Barents Krans, Netherlands

Panelists:

• Fabiana Campopiano, Pedersoli Gattai, Italy
• Grégoire Ryelandt, deprevernet, Belgium
• Maïja Brossard, UGGC, France
• Alexandru Caprau, Schönherr, Austria

Digital infrastructure – digital sovereignty and fair and non-discriminatory access

In the rapidly evolving AI-economy, digital infrastructure serves as the indispensable backbone, requiring a foundation that is fundamentally trustworthy, independent, and reliable. However, the high capital costs of building such infrastructure – such as massive data centers, fiber nets, LLMs – often lead to significant market concentration. What role does competition law play to ensure fair and non-discriminatory access, effectively preventing dominant players from using their power to exclude rivals or lock in customers? May we draw on experience on access to infrastructure from the old economy? What aspects shall be prioritized when building this infrastructure? May competition laws also ensure digital sovereignty?

Moderator: Michael Tschudin, Wenger Vieli, Switzerland

Panelists:

• Prof. Nicolas Diebold, University of Lucerne, Member of the Swiss Competition Commission WEKO, Switzerland
• Goran Serdarevic, Frontier Economics, Czech Republic, UK
• Axel Desmedt, President of Belgian Competition Authority, Belgium

Saturday

PANELS

Context matters! Translating the ECJ “by object” doctrine into national case law

Context matters (as well as of the content and objectives)! Despite the judicial mandate for contextual nuance, predicting the fate of non-naked restrictions remains a high-stakes gamble. We aim to bridge the gap between high-level ECJ principles and the ground-level reality of national enforcement and discover the “contextual top 7” – the cases where authorities or courts looked past the label to do a reality check of context, including a masterclass in the tricky world of labour restrictions (no spoiler!).

Moderator: Anca Jurcovan, Wolf Theiss, Romania

Panelists:

• Jacques Philippe Guenther, Latham & Watkins, France
• Donald Slater, Ashurst, Brussels
• Simone Kohnz, E.CA Economics, Germany

Interaction of public procurement regulations and competition law across the EU

Competition law infringements trigger consequences extending beyond monetary fines, including exclusion from public procurement opportunities across Europe. This panel brings together enforcement authorities and practitioners to examine national implementations of Directive 2014/24/EU, exploring prohibition mechanisms, cross-border implications for EU-funded projects, and corporate awareness gaps. Panellists will analyse how compliance programmes and self-cleaning measures function as safeguards in both procurement and sanctioning contexts, whilst discussing innovative enforcement trends, including AI-based detection tools transforming tender monitoring. Attendees will gain practical takeaways for navigating this complex intersection of competition and procurement law.

Moderator: Patricia Vidal, Uria Menendez, Spain

Panelists:

• Susana Campuzano Fernández, Director of Competition at the National Markets and Competition Commission CNMC, Spain
• Francesco Anglani, Bonelli Erede, Italy
• Bart Creve, Kromann Reumert, Denmark
• Balint Bassola, Bassola Law Firm, Hungary