Several top NERA competition and antitrust experts from around the globe will speak at the Antitrust Economics Workshop, during the 46th Fordham Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy, in New York City. The Workshop will be held on 11 September 2019.

It will include two interactive panel discussions, consisting of NERA antitrust experts and experienced, external competition lawyers speaking in each session.

More details about the event can be found below. If you'd like to register, please visit the Fordham website and scroll down to “Registration.”

Will a Global Consensus on the Digital Sector Be the Dawn of a New Day or Is It Just a Big Ditto?

Using specific examples and case studies from around the world, the panelists will look at how various regulators are using economic principals to address competition in the digital sector, to see if there are any common themes, and draw implications for firms and lawyers doing business in the US, Europe, and APAC.

• “Everything Old is New Again”; But Is it? – We’ll set the stage by taking a close look at the economic tools we use to analyze competition, define markets, and understand pricing, and ask if and how they can be applied to marketplaces that trade on data rather than dollars.
• Killer Acquisitions: A Perspective from Down Under – Regulators around the world, including those in Australia are calling on digital platforms to pre-notify, based on an idea that these platforms have a type of “special status” in our economies. We’ll look at the relevant theory of harm, assess whether competition law remains adequate for the digital sector, explore examples from other sectors, and offer thoughts on how economic analysis can both help spur innovation and reduce the risk of anti-competitive behavior.
• Will Europe’s Digital Single Market Strategy Be a Driver of Growth or a Barrier to Innovation? – We will report on the regulatory changes on e-commerce currently being discussed in the European Union and discuss their implications for firms and consumers. In particular, we’ll take a close look at the EU Geo-Blocking Regulation and at its possible extension to copyright-content services, including music. We will also consider how the revision of the EU Vertical Block Exemption Regulation could impact Europe’s so-far rigid stance on Resale Price Maintenance (RPM).

Panelists include:
Dr. Alexandre Carbonnel, Senior Consultant (Paris)
Dr. Stephanie Demperio, former Senior Consultant (Washington, DC)
Dr. Craig Malam, Associate Director (San Francisco/Sydney)
Dr. Nicola Tosini, Associate Director (Berlin)
Darren Tucker, Partner, Vinson & Elkins LLP

5G Is Roiling the Telecommunications Market and Raising Big Issues for Regulators

Countries are racing to deploy 5G, with its promise of super-fast downloads, the Internet of Things (IoT), and self-driving cars. The panelists will take a close look at the economics behind this revolution and present a framework to analyze how 5G could impact prices, welfare, and innovation in the telecommunications sector.

• Quick Intro to the Economics of 5G – We’ll provide a quick foundation for the panel discussion by describing the economic and market drivers to explain why 5G might cost more and the potential benefits to consumers, companies, and economies.
• Modeling Changing Facts in Merger Review and Regulatory Proceedings – Modeling the benefits of 5G isn’t straightforward because most economic models see product characteristics as static. We’ll discuss modeling 5G, and innovation in general, in terms of consumer utility, offering a framework that can be used to understand and analyze mergers and competition in various markets.
• High Cost Is Leading to Collaboration and Consolidation – We’ll look at the economics and market considerations of network sharing agreements in Europe, and consider recent mergers to understand how the cost of 5G deployment is driving consolidation. Reducing the number of players or allowing collaboration might reduce competitive tension, but it might also better enable those players to invest and achieve efficiencies that actually increase competitive tension.
• 5G and SEP: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility – Companies that own standard essential patents (SEP) for 5G are likely to be key players in the transition to this new technology. We’ll discuss the basic economics of SEPs, explain why they may play a larger role in 5G than they did in previous iterations of mobile connectivity, and explore whether economic issues in past antitrust cases involving SEPs in mobile technologies may shed light on potential issues today.
• 5G Will Accelerate Fixed-Mobile Convergence – If 5G lives up to the hype, the capacity and quality improvement will mean that wireless networks offer similar speed, quality, and capacity to fixed networks. The panel will consider the regulatory and antitrust implications of fixed-mobile convergence in the EU, APAC, and US.

Panelists include:
Dr. Anca Cojoc, Senior Consultant, NERA Economic Consulting (London)
Dr. Jason Hong, Senior Consultant, NERA Economic Consulting (New York)
Dr. Will Taylor, Associate Director, NERA Economic Consulting (Auckland/Sydney)
Dr. Claire Xie, Senior Consultant, NERA Economic Consulting (New York)
Jeff Jaeckel, Partner and Global Antitrust & Competition Group Co-Chair, Morrison & Foerster LLP