The Amsterdam Center for Law & Economics (ACLE) organizes its 7th annual Competition & Regulation Meeting on the topic:

Competition Policy for Emerging Economies: When and How?

May 20, 2011
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Keynote Speakers

Frédéric Jenny (ESSEC Business School)
Daniel Sokol (University of Florida)
Michal Gal (University of Haifa)

Roundtable discussion chaired by William Kovacic (FTC) between the keynote speakers, joined by Eleanor Fox (New York University School of Law), Andrew Gavil (Howard University), Marc Ivaldi (Toulouse School of Economics), Ioannis Lianos (UCL), Sean Ennis (Competition Commission of Mauritius), Simon Roberts (Competition Commission South Africa), Dina Waked (El Kamel, Egypt) and Hassan Qaqaya (UNCTAD).

Introduction to the Topic

Since the turn of the century, an increasing number of countries around the world have created competition policy regimes from scratch. Noted examples are new EU Member States, China and India, but also Syria, Kenya and Ecuador have advanced in the process of implementing competition laws. Developing countries are pledging to do the same. International organizations such as UNCTAD and the OECD, as well as leading Western agencies and the ICN have advised for decades in the design of competition rules and the creation of the institutions to enforce them. Multinational corporations adapt their business strategies to these developments.

The topic of competition enforcement in emerging economies and its interrelationship to economic development has come on the academic agenda recently. Central to it is the question whether new enforcement regimes need a special set of enforcement tools and what an appropriate mix of enforcement tools and priorities should be in what stage in the country's economic life-cycle.

This year’s ACLE Competition & Regulation meeting focuses on the question: how to make emerging competition law regimes operational and effective? Seeking to be informed by scholarly learning and lessons drawn from the experiences mentioned, the approach in this conference will also be practical.

Key Questions Addressed in this Conference

What is the right stage in the development of a country for competition policy to add to national prosperity? Should it be part of early aid packages and requirements? What adaptations to competition laws of other jurisdictions do new regimes need? How are legal transplants implemented and how do they function in divergent legal and political systems? Which tools from the rich pallet of competition law enforcement instruments that are applied, for example in the US and the European Commission, are best suited for a young agency? And which are better saved for later stages in its development?

How to kick-start implementation of the law? How to position and staff the institutions? How to nurture proper incentives through selection, training and career prospects? How to organize advocacy? What cases to take-on initially – foreign export cartels, local collusion, domestic mergers? What challenges can agencies expect in the first years? What are the typical procedural and constitutional battles? How to pick the right seminal cases to win those battles and power and reputation? How to avoid corruption by vested interest?

What may be expected from international cooperation in enforcement? What can be the role of the international business community? How will multinational corporations assess new competition regimes? Will their existence affect investment decisions, and if so how? Are foreign multinational potential entrants allies of the domestic agency, or threats to their effectiveness? What quality of agency do companies prefer?

The 7th ACLE Competition & Regulation Meeting

The objective of this C&R Meeting is to bring together renowned specialists in this area in conference to debate. We also welcome practitioners with a keen interest in this specialty subject, including new agency officials, government officials interested in competition policy as a development aid tool, competition lawyers and consultants that intend to develop a practice and young scholars working on these research topics. In the 7th ACLE Competition & Regulation Meeting we will approach the topic of competition policy for emerging markets and agencies from different angles, both economic and legal.

Call for Papers CLOSED

Academics, private practitioners and competition officials, both with a legal and an economic background, are encouraged to submit their research for inclusion in the conference program. We welcome all original research (in progress).

Submissions for inclusion in the program (full papers or abstracts) may be sent together with the author’s address information to: ACLE@uva.nl

For submission details, click below:

The deadline for submission is March 1, 2011. Decisions on acceptance to the program will be communicated mid March.

Conference Program

The program takes place at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Law (Oudemanhuispoort 4-6).

For the complete program of presentations click on the link below.

Conference Papers and Presentations

Papers (or abstracts) and Presentations are available for download via de link below.

Registration CLOSED

The fee for this conference is €200 for practitioners and €75 for (full-time) academics.

To register for the conference, click on the link below. Payment details will be provided with the confirmation of your on-line registration. Please note that we have only a limited number of places available, so early registration is advised.

We can offer a limited number of fee waivers to selected scholars (PhD candidates and post-docs). To qualify, please send your application by separate e-mail to acle@uva.nl.

The registration fee includes conference participation, lunch, refreshments, closing drinks and buffet.

List of Participants

The list of participants can be downloaded through the link below.

Conference Venue

The conference takes place at the University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, 1012 CN Amsterdam.

Closing drinks & buffet

The conference program will be closed on Friday afternoon with drinks and a dinner buffet in Amsterdam. Details will be provided here soon.

Pictures of the event

Behind the link below, you will find some pictures of speakers and participants taken during the conference.

Hotel Accommodation

Participants are to arrange their own lodging. The following is a selection of hotels in de vicinity of the conference venues.

• Sofitel The Grand *****
  Oudezijds Voorburgwal 197, Amsterdam
  Website: www.thegrand.nl
• NH Doelen ****
  Nieuwe Doelenstraat 24, Amsterdam
  Website: www.nh-hotels.com
• Le Coin ***
  Nieuwe Doelenstraat 5, Amsterdam
  Website www.lecoin.nl
• Hotel Arena ***
  's Gravesandestraat 51, Amsterdam
  Website www.hotelarena.nl
• Hostel Stay OK Amsterdam Vondelpark
  Zandpad 5, Amsterdam
  Website: www.stayokay.com

Peripheral event: The 2011 ICN Annual Conference in The Hague

The ACLE conference program is scheduled to be complementary to the 2011 ICN Annual Conference, held May 17-20 in The Hague, so that agency officials with a special interest in our topic can combine them in their visit to The Netherlands.

For more information on the ICN meeting, see the website:

Organizing Committee

Maarten Pieter Schinkel (chair), Rein Wesseling, Benjamin van Rooij, Jeroen van de Ven, Kati Cseres, Jo Seldeslachts, Martijn Han and Michael Frese.

For further inquiries contact the ACLE Office at +31 (0)20 525 4162 or the e-mail address below.

For further information about the ACLE, see www.acle.nl.

The City of Amsterdam

For information on Amsterdam and surrounding events programmed in the city in May, see the link below:

The ACLE C&R Meetings

The ACLE Competition & Regulation meetings are a series of annual workshops that focus on topics in competition law enforcement and regulation. Around a program of key-note speakers, scholars discuss submitted academic papers in parallel sessions. The leading idea is to inform European competition policy. The aim is to attract roughly 100 specialized participants from academia, government antitrust agencies, law and consulting firms to create the optimal conditions for a high level exchange of views.

For more information, see the link below: