Current and Future Challenges for Global Antitrust Enforcement

In this special edition of the Competition Policy Lab seminar series, Bruegel is honoured to host a dialogue between William E. Kovacic, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, and Massimo Motta, Chief Economist at DG Competition, European Commission. Prof. Kovacic and Prof. Motta will discuss the current and future challenges for global antitrust enforcement.

The dialogue will be moderated by Mario Mariniello (Bruegel) and it will be followed by a Q&A session which will be opened by the moderator reading a selection of questions sent to Bruegel ahead of the seminar by registered participants.

Upon registration, participants will receive a web link. By clicking on the link, participants will be directed to a form to submit their question (the sender might choose not to reveal her identity or affiliation).

Speakers

• William E. Kovacic, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission

• Massimo Motta, Chief Economist at DG Competition, European Commission

• Chair: Mario Mariniello, Research Fellow, Bruegel

Speaker biographies:

William E. Kovacic is the Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy and the Director of the Competition Law Center at the George Washington University Law School. Kovacic joined the George Washington faculty in 1999.

From January 2006 to October 2011, Professor Kovacic was a member of the Federal Trade Commission, He chaired the agency from March 2008 until March 2009. From January 2009 to September 2011, he served as Vice Chair for Outreach of the International Competition Network. Professor Kovacic was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through 2004, and also worked for the Commission from 1979 until 1983, initially in the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas.

Kovacic was a member of the faculty at the George Mason University School of Law from 1986 to 1999. From 1983 to 1986, he practiced antitrust and government contracts law with Bryan Cave’s Washington, DC, office. Earlier in his career, Kovacic spent one year on the majority staff of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee.

Beginning in 1992, Kovacic was an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Massimo Motta is Chief Competition Economist at Dg-Competition, European Commission. He is ICREA Research Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Research Professor of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. He founded the GSE's Competition and Market Regulation Program and still teaches in this Master. Professor Motta is on leave from these institutions during his mandate as Chief Economist.

Professor Motta's main areas of research are industrial organisation and in particular competition policy, but he has also worked on international trade and multinational firms. His work, widely cited and influential, has been published in the leading international economic journals. His book on Competition Policy: Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2004) is the standard international reference on the economics of antitrust, and is used by teachers, scholars, and practitioners.

He has extensive experience in teaching competition policy (to lawyers, economists, agency officials, and in both undergraduate and graduate courses) and in supervising doctoral dissertations. His former students have obtained important positions in academia, consulting firms, and in competition and regulatory agencies.

Practical details

• Venue: Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Brussels
• Time: Friday 13 December 2013, 10:00 - 11:30 (registration opens at 9.45)
• Contact:Matilda Sevón, Events Coordinator - matilda.sevon[at]bruegel.org