The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) and the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition in Budapest (RCC) will hold a competition law seminar for judges focusing on “Competition Economics” on 10-11 May 2019 in Budapest, Hungary. The seminar will receive funding from the European Union.
Economic concepts and analysis have taken a fundamental place in the field of competition law over the years. In modern antitrust litigation, the soundness of the economic methods adopted by national competition authorities in their examinations, and the relevance of the economic studies submitted by companies’ legal representatives in support of their cases, are subject to the scrutiny of national judges.
This seminar aims to familiarise national judges with basic economic concepts and the legal and procedural challenges they may face when applying them in competition law cases due to the increased relevance of economic analysis across all fields of antitrust law.
The two-day seminar will provide national judges with specific knowledge and practice related to competition economics in order to enhance their confidence when faced with economic notions and economic based arguments, and to help them communicate more effectively with economic court experts and economic expert witnesses.
The first day will begin by addressing the fundamental notions in market definition that need to be grasped by the participants (e.g., supply and demand, elasticity, substitutability, basic intuition of HMTand CLA). It will then continue to explore one of the key concepts of antitrust economics: market power, determined through the identification of dominance and abuses thereof. The economic tools used in the assessment of antitrust issues, such as in cases dealing with technological markets and sharing-economy activities, will also be examined.
The second day will be dedicated to the principles and procedures governing the assessment of economic evidence (i.e., inter alia, data, reports, studies). (i) The standard of review and the standard of proof applicable to such type of evidence will be examined; (ii) further certain concepts linked to specific types of infringements willbe clarified; and (iii) suggestions on how to make economic analysis instrumental and manageable in court despite the existence of procedural challenges will be provided.
The training will conclude by focusing on the use of economic evidence in the context of damages claims. This theme hasbeen chosen to wrap-up the session given the fact that such litigation proceedings may heavily rely on this type of evidence and national judges are likely to be faced with an increasing number of actions for damages since the implementation of Directive 2014/104/EU.
The seminar will rely on active participation through group exercises and will require personal engagement throughout the two-day training.
The seminar is open to national judges, prosecutors, apprentice national judges and the staff of the judges’ offices of national courts dealing with competition law in EU member countries and Albania.
A good command of English is an essential condition of registration. Participation will be completely free of charge. The costs will be covered by EU and GVH funds.
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The national judicial training centres of the following countries have offered to directly participate in the selection of applicants: Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Bulgaria. Please contact your national training centre for more information if you would like to register from any of these countries.
If your country is not listed above, please send your registration form via email directly to Andrea Dalmay at the RCC (dalmay.andrea@gvh.hu).
One place will be reserved for one applicant from each EU Member State, but if free spaces remain these will be filled up irrespective of nationality. We will decide about the applications on the basis of the individuals’ work experience and the group’s composition, as we would like to have a heterogeneous group in order to promote the exchange of ideas and experiences among participants.
The registration deadline is 02 April 2019 Applicants willbe informed by 08 April 2019 if their registration has been accepted.
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Participants will be accommodated in a hotel in Budapest which will also serve as the seminar’s venue. The event organisers will take care of the reservations and cover the costs of the accommodation for 3 nights on 9, 10, and 11 May 2019. Participants will be invited to a welcome dinner on 10 May and will receive lunch on 10 and 11 May.
Participants shall arrange their own travel, and their travel costs (economy class) will be reimbursed by the event organisers after the seminar. The cost of local transportation (taxi, airport shuttle, public transport) and the cost of travel insurance will not be reimbursed. Please note that a condition of reimbursement is actual participation in the entire seminar.
Should you have any questions about the event, please contact Ms Andrea Dalmay (dalmay.andrea@gvh.hu, phone: +36-1-472-8880).
