Tag Archives: Antitrust

Industrial Policy, Mercantilism, and Competition Law in a Post-Draghi World

Call for Papers

XLIV Competition Law Scholars Forum Workshop

College de France, Paris

Friday, 26 September 2025

Competition Law Scholars Forum (CLASF) is pleased to announce its XLV Workshop, focusing on the evolving relationship between industrial policy and competition law. This is particularly timely given the renewed interest in strategic autonomy, the global rise in mercantilist economic policies, and the recent influence of theDraghi Report on the future of European competitiveness. The increasing prominence of state-led industrial policy, subsidy races, and geopolitical concerns has brought fresh challenges for traditional competition law frameworks. These developments raise fundamental questions:
Can competition law remain neutral in a world of politicised markets?
How should authorities respond to the competitive distortions caused by third-country subsidies?
What role can or should EU State aid rules play in this landscape?
And how might national and supranational competition regimes evolve in response?

We welcome papers that explore these themes from doctrinal, economic, comparative, or policy-oriented perspectives.

Topics of particular interest include (but are not limited to):
The implications of the Draghi Report and related EU initiatives (e.g. Green Deal Industrial Plan, Net-Zero Industry Act) for competition law enforcement;
The compatibility (or tension) between national industrial policy goals and EU competition law;
Competition law enforcement in the face of strategic autonomy, trade defence, or foreign subsidies instruments;
Comparative approaches to balancing industrial policy and competition law (e.g. U.S., China, Global South);
Theoretical re-evaluations of competition law’s objectives in the post-globalisation era.

We welcome contributions from early-career and established researchers alike, as well as from practitioners and policymakers. The Workshop is in-person only and will be held at the Collège de France in Paris, under the direction of Prof Aurelien Portuese (The George Washington University; College de France). Please submit abstracts of 500–1,000 words by 5 July 2025 to Prof Barry Rodger <barry.j.rodger@strath.ac.uk>; and Prof Aurelien Portuese <aurelien.portuese@gwu.edu>. Decisions will be communicated by 19 July 2025. A draft of the presentation or paper should be submitted one week before the event. Selected papers may be considered for publication in the Competition Law Review, a fully refereed scholarly law journal.

Competition Law and the Sporting Arena – XLIII CLaSF Workshop

XLIII Competition Law Scholars Forum Workshop (CLaSF)

Competition Law in a Sporting Context

Thursday 24 April 2025

University of Porto, Faculty of Law

Rua dos Bragas, 223 – Porto

Programme

09:30 – 09:50 Registration and coffee

09:50 – 10.00
Welcome and Introduction:
Paulo de Tarso Domingues (Dean of the Faculty of Law of University of Porto), Barry Rodger (CLaSF, University of Strathclyde) and Jose Reis (University of Porto)

10-10.30 Keynote

Rosalia Ortega Pradilllo, Rosalia Ortega Sports Law, Presidente Instituto Iberoamericano de Derecho Deportivo
The Diarra Case and the Potential End of Release Clauses

10:30–11:30 Transfer Regulations and Player Mobility in Football, Chair: Sandra Oliveira Silva (University of Porto School of Law; Chair of the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation)

Javier Perez, Regula Law
The theories of anticompetitive harm of FIFA’s former transfer regulations: the path to redress and deterrence against a no poach buyer cartel

Miquel Aznar Company, Universitat de Valencia
Player Mobility Regulation and Competition Law: Towards a More Competitive Market?

11:30 – 12:00 Coffee Break

12.00 – 13.00 ‘The Beautiful Game’?, Chair Miguel Miranda (Head of Competition Dept, Raposo, Sá Miranda & Associados)

Maria Sanchez Magdalena, FILS, Barcelona
Foreign Investment in European Football: The Impact of the FSR

Jose Reis, Porto University
No-poach, crisis cartels and the sporting exception: the strange case of the Portuguese football COVID19 deal

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 –15:30 Competition law Regulation of Rugby: worth a Try?, Chair Angus MacCulloch (Lancaster University Law School)

 Beverley Williamson, McCann Fitzgerald LLP
Professional Rugby Union: Time to stop tinkering around the edges of a cartel

 Richard Bunworth, UCD, Dublin
The Irish Rugby Football Union’s Eligibility Restrictions in Light of the Diarra Case

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break

16:00–17:15 Widening the Lens: Sports Authorities and Organizations and the Role for Competition Law, Chair Professor Francisco Marcos (IE University)

Andreas Stephan and Peter Dawson, George Centre for Competition Policy, UEA, Norwich
Exploring the Implications of Recent Competition Law Challenges in the Sports Industry 

Barry Rodger, Strathclyde University
‘Sports’ in which Scottish People excel …to what extent are sports’ governing organisations Snookered by Competition Law

 Angus MacCulloch, Lancaster University
Article 101, Public Harms and Specificity of Sport

17:15 – 17:30 Closing comments

 18:00 Drinks

20:00 Speakers’ Dinner

Call For Papers – Competition Law and the Sporting Arena

The Competition Law Scholars Forum announce a Call for Papers for their 43rd Workshop on Thursday 24 April 2025 at the Universidade do Porto.

CLASF is launching a new workshop to discuss the relationship between competition law and the sporting arena. This has been the subject of three major CJEU rulings within the last year: firstly, two -delivered on the same date- relating to the European Super League (ESL, C-323/21) and the International Skating Union (ISU, C-124/21P) and, secondly, the post-Bosman ruling in Diarra (FIFA, C-650/22). There has been considerable discussion and controversy in recent years about the extent to which EU competition law applies to the regulatory and governance structures involved in sports organisations and any remaining value in the ‘specificity of sport’ concept. This is particularly significant from a commercial, legal, and social perspective given the importance of sports in society and its inherent tension with the economic goals of Competition Law.

Details of the Call are available on the Wokshop’s Event Page

Private Antitrust Enforcement: taking stock and looking ahead – CLaSF Workshop – Programme

XLII Competition Law Scholars Forum Workshop

Friday, 4th October 2024

Private Antitrust Enforcement: taking stock and looking ahead

IE University/ IE Law School, Madrid (Spain)

IE Tower (room T-16/01)
Paseo de La Castellana 259
Madrid E-28046

09:30 – 09:50 Registration and Coffee (HUB 16)

09:50 – 10:00 Welcome and Introduction: Barry Rodger (CLaSF, University of Strathclyde)
and Fernando Pastor (IE Law School)

10:00–11:15 Setting the Context: Private Enforcement under EU Law, Chair: Barry
Rodger

Csongor Istvan Nagy, Galway University
The private enforcement of competition law in Europe: we have a religion- now it’s time to find a founder!

Gustavo Andrés Martin, Juzgado de lo Mercantil 1 of Alicante
Private Enforcement After Ten Years of the Antitrust Damages Directive

Lena Hornkohl, University of Vienna
Collective Actions for competition law violations in the EU: state of play

11:15 – 11:35 Coffee Break (HUB 16)

11:35 – 13:15 Extending Private Enforcement, Chair: Lena Hornkohl

Eduardo Pastor Martinez, Audiencia Provincial of Valencia (section 9)
Contracts and Damages: The Expansive Nature of the Private Enforcement of Competition Law

Antonio Robles Martin-Laborda, Carlos III Madrid University
Standard Arbitration Agreements and Cartel Damages under EU Law

Miguel Sousa Ferro & Ricardo Jorge Silva, Lisbon Law School & Sousa Ferro & Associados
European Commission at Court: Friend or Foe to Antitrust Private Enforcement?

Dominik Wolski, Kozminski University
Harm Displacement and Private Antitrust Enforcement

13.15 – 14.30 Lunch (HUB 16)

14:30 –15:45 Competition law Collective Redress: Key Themes and Developments in the UK, Chair: Angus MacCulloch

Barry Rodger, University of Strathclyde
Key Themes in the Certification of Collective Proceedings in the UK by the CAT under the Consumer Rights Act 2015

Maria Ioannidou, Queen Margaret University
UK Collective Actions against Big Tech: Private Enforcement 2.0

Sebastian Peyer, University of East Anglia
Litigation Funding after PACCAR- challenges in UK competition litigation and beyond

15:45 – 16:00 Coffee Break (HUB 16)

16.00–17:15 Private Enforcement: A Comparative Perspective, Chair: Maria Ioannidou

Aurelien Portuese, George Washington University
Comparative Law and Economics of Private Antitrust Enforcement: a Framework to
meet half way

Rita Paukste, Mykolas Romeris University
Why (Successful) actions for damages are rare in Lithuania

Francisco Marcos, IE University & academic counsel CCS Abogados
Damages in the Spanish paper envelopes cartel

17:15 – 17:30 Closing comments

18:00 Drinks

20:30 Speakers’ Dinner

 

 

CCS Abogados Logo

CLaSF Workshop – Promoting Fairness, Accessibility, and Sustainability in Digital and Technology Markets through Competition Law

XLI Competition Law Scholars Forum Workshop (CLaSF)

Promoting Fairness, Accessibility, and Sustainability in Digital and
Technology Markets through Competition Law

Friday 5 April, 2023
UMA Law School / Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Málaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur, 26,
Málaga, Spain

In association with the UMA research projects CODIG-IA and CoMeDi  and the support of Pérez-Llorca

Mandatory prior registration by 29th March confirming attendance to Eugenio Olmedo at competenciamalaga@uma.es

Programme

09:30 – 09:50 Registration and coffee

09:50 – 10:00 Welcome and Introduction: Barry Rodger (CLaSF, University of Strathclyde) and Eugenio Olmedo (University of Malaga)

10:00 –11:00 Competition Law and the Broader Public Interest, Chair: Barry Rodger

Maria Campo Comba, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
The concept of fairness and its potential to pursue public interests in EU competition law

Daria Kotova, BRICS Competition Law and Policy Centre
Sustainability and Competition law: A Systems Approach

11:00 – 11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 12.15 Fairness and the DMA, Chair: Viktoria Robertson, Vienna University of Business and Economics

Pablo Solano Diaz, PhD candidate Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
From Darwinism to Lamarckism: Contestability and fairness as non-objectives of competition law

Oles Andriychuk, Newcastle University
The Role of Fairness in the New EU DMA and UK DMCC Regimes

12:15 – 13:15 Digital Ecosystems, Chair: Rita Leandro Vasconcelos, Pérez-Llorca

Sara Guidi, EUI Florence
Accessible mobile ecosystems: virtuous competitive dynamics and hidden perils

Fatima Gigirey, University of Seville
Legal and Economic Problems of Market Definition in Digital Ecosystems

13:15 – 14:30 Lunch

14:30 –15:30 Green and Digital Markets, Challenges and Strategies, Chair: Francisco Marcos, IE University Madrid

Georgia Theodorakopoulou, College of Europe
The role of soft law in the new era of competition law: Legal certainty, democratic legitimacy and the challenges in the realm of the twin transition

Viktoria Robertson, Vienna University of Business and Economics
Strategic Foresight as an Enabler of the Twin Green and Digital Transition in Competition Law

15:30 – 15.45 Coffee Break

15.45–17:15 Digital Markets – Remedies and enforcement, Chair: Angus MacCulloch, Lancaster University

Linus Hoffmann, Strathclyde University
Liability Rules as Competition Remedies

Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel, University of Liege
Competition ‘sandboxes’: by-design enforcement tools to promote fairness, accessibility and sustainability in EU digital and technology markets?

Carles Górriz López, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
The Google Saga and Epic Games v Apple: Lessons for a Transatlantic Comparison

17:15 – 17:30 Closing comments

18:30 Drinks
20:30 Speakers’ Dinner sponsored by Pérez-Llorca

CLaSF Workshop – Critical Evaluation of and New Insights for Competition Law Enforcement and Policy-Making

Call for Papers

XL CLaSF Workshop on Competition Law Academic Scholarship – Critical Evaluation of and New Insights for Competition Law Enforcement and Policy-Making

Friday 22 September 2023

 

Strathclyde Law School / Strathclyde Centre for Antitrust Law and Empirical Study, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

In association with Dentons, Glasgow.

The Competition Law Scholars’ Forum was set up to foster academic interaction and debate on key aspects and themes of competition law and help to promote a sense of an academic community of competition law scholars by facilitating the presentation of research in a friendly and open environment, and consequently allow for contributions to wider developments in competition law and policy.

CLASF is now over 20 years old and in this 40th Clasf Workshop we want to celebrate and showcase the important contribution that competition law academics make to debates on competition law enforcement and policy. Accordingly, the key theme here is research recently or currently undertaken by academics which can help to make a significant contribution to our understanding of aspects of competition law and in particular which will engage with and contribute to recent, ongoing and future developments in competition law enforcement and policy-making.

Against this background the Competition Law Scholars Forum (CLaSF) 40th workshop invites contributions (abstract paper proposals from researchers, scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers) in relation to any issue within this wide subject. We welcome theoretical, economics-driven, practice-based, or policy-focused papers, and we are interested in receiving abstracts for papers which may be focused on perspectives or experience at national, regional (e.g. EU), or international levels, or a combination. We are planning a live, in-person event only.

The Workshop will consist of a mix of invited speakers and contributions chosen following this call for papers. Any person interested in being considered on the basis of the call for papers at the workshop is asked to contact Professor Barry Rodger at barry.j.rodger@strath.ac.uk. An abstract is required of approximately 500-1,000 words, to be submitted by no later than Monday 24th July 2023, and decisions on successful submissions will be taken by Friday 11th August 2023.

Submission of presentation/draft paper is also required a week prior to the workshop. Papers presented at the conference can be submitted to the Competition Law Review editorial board with a view to being published in the Review. Note that the Review is a fully refereed scholarly law journal: submission does not guarantee publication.

Competition Law Review – Volume 15 Issue 1

The latest issue of the Competition Law Review has now been published. This issue features papers from an exciting range of Scholars and focuses on exciting changes to competition law stemming from the development of digital markets.

Papers include: Caforio discussing algorithmic collusion; Lorenzoni examining interactions with AI; Beems, van de Gronden & Catalin Rusu on the DMA; and, Mendelsohn on digital conglomerates. The issues editorial is presented by Oles Andriychuk.

Access to the papers is from the CompLRev page

Call for Papers – 40th CLaSF Workshop

CLaSF is celebrating its 40th CLaSF Workshop by going home!

In this Clasf Workshop we want to celebrate and showcase the important contribution that competition law academics make to debates on competition law enforcement and policy. Accordingly, the key theme here is research recently or currently undertaken by academics which can help to make a significant contribution to our understanding of aspects of competition law and in particular which will engage with and contribute to recent, ongoing and future developments in competition law enforcement and policy-making.

Please see the Event Page for full details of the Call.

Markets in Crisis: the stress test for competition law – CLaSF Workshop

XXXIXth CLaSF Workshop

Markets in Crisis: the stress test for competition law

Friday 21 April 2023

Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary

Budapest, Tóth Kálmán street 4., T Building, Ground floor

Mandatory prior registration by 14th April 2023 by confirmation with varju.marton.dr@gmail.com

09:30 – 09:50: Registration and coffee

09:50: Introduction – Barry Rodger (CLaSF), Kati Cseres (ACELG, Uva)

10:00 – 10:30: Setting the Workshop Theme – Kati Cseres and Márton Varjú

10.30-11.30    Markets in Crisis: The Context, Chair: Barry Rodger

Marek Martyniszyn, Queens University Belfast
Competition Law and Policy in Times of Crises

Oles Andriychuk, Newcastle University,
Markets in Crisis: Adapting Theory to the New Reality

11:30 – 11:45: Coffee Break

11:45 – 12:45 Markets in Crisis: Risks, Chair: Francisco Marcos

Ildikó Bartha and Tamás M. Horváth , University of Debrecen, Hungary,
Rule of Law Risks in EU Competition Law in Times of Crises and Beyond

Juliane Mendelsohn, TU Limenau,
When competition fails – systemic risk, capture and concentration

12:45 – 14:00 LUNCH

14:00 – 15:00 Markets in Crisis: State Aid, Chair: Márton Varjú

Monika Papp, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungary,
EU strategic autonomy and State aid control. Foes or fellows?

Francisco Costa-Cabral,
From Crisis Cartels to COVID-19 State Aid and Cooperation: The Non-Exceptionality of Crisis Management by EU Competition Law

15:00 – 16:00 Markets in Crisis; Liberalism, Chair: Szabolcs Szendrő

Emanuela Lecchi, University of Dundee,
Merger Control in Times of Crisis

Haukur Logi Karlsson, University of Iceland,
Outlining a theory about the role of competition law analysis in labour markets

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee Break

 16:15 – 17:45 Markets in Crisis; Widening Horizons, Chair: Angus MacCulloch

Qiang Yu, Shandong University of Science and Technology
Legislative Response to Market and Technological Shifts: Implications from China’s Competition Law Legislation

Ben Evans, University of East Anglia,
Pressing Reset: towards an Islamic value-based approach to solving the problem of data advantage

Nataliia Mazaraki and Anzhelika Gerasymenko, State University of Trade and Economics, Kyiv,
Postwar Challenges of Competition Law and Policy in Ukraine

17:45 – 17:50 Closing Comments

18:00 Drinks

19:30  Speakers’ Dinner sponsored by CMS Hungary