Andrej Matvoz, Director of Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (SCPA), and Neža Zupančič, Head of the Department for Concentrations and Economic Analytics at SCPA, attended the ICN Unilateral Conduct Workshop in the Czech capital Prague last week, which was organized by the Czech Competition Authority and whose main topic was unilateral conduct of companies in the field of competition. SC PA representatives were among many distinguished guests and lecturers in the field of competition law, and Zupančič was also the moderator of the round table entitled Administrative monopolies and exclusive rights granted by governments. The round table also included: Carolina Helena Fontes from the Brazilian Competition Agency, Borja Martin as a representative of the Spanish Competition Ombudsman, and Alden Abbott, Senior Lecturer and Researcher at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in the US state of Virginia.
The participants and listeners of the round table, moderated by Neža Zupančič, touched upon, among other things, the area of government measures that can distort competition, including by granting rights and privileges to individual companies, which create administrative monopolies or dominant positions that can act in a manner detrimental to ensuring competition. Those present wondered about the effects of administrative monopolies, the distinction between legitimate and harmful conduct, and also how to act in cases of distortion of competition caused by measures and/or activities of administrative monopolies. Since the speakers came from completely different jurisdictions, the discussion, while sharing a wealth of knowledge and experience, also contained an interesting comparative legal aspect.
The main topics of the Prague ICN workshop included abuse of dominant position and the scope of competition in digital markets, definition of relevant markets, theories of harm and standards of proof, and other challenges faced by competition authorities in enforcing competition rules. The Prague workshop was one of the key annual professional meetings in the field of competition law and policy, presenting good practices, guidelines for market regulators, and approaching new trends in the industry, including artificial intelligence and digital markets.
ICN, as a project-oriented informal network of competition authorities from developed and developing countries, serves to exchange experiences in competition law areas, as well as to exchange views on individual competition law issues that arise in the globalized world economy. The purpose of the network is to share experiences in the field of competition law implementation and good business practices, promote the advisory role of competition authorities and encourage international cooperation. Within the framework of ICN, they deal with issues of antitrust enforcement, current substantive topics and formulate proposals for the procedural and substantive harmonisation of the competition law regimes of the network members.