Lars Sørgard, Mette Bjørndal, Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen and Tore Lunde outside BECCLE in Parkveien 20
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) was established in 2011, and is a research center jointly owned by Norwegian School of Economics and the University of Bergen. The Center servers as a a meeting place for economists and lawyers interested in competition policy questions.
The idea to establish the center was initiated in 2010 by people at University of Bergen, Norwegian School of Economics and Norwegian Competition Authority. A committee submitted two reports to the rectors at the University of Bergen and Norwegian School of Economics, one in October 2010 and one in January 2011. In May and June 2011 the boards at University of Bergen and the Norwegian School of Economics decided to establish the joint center.
The official opening was made by the chair of the BECCLE board, vice rector Mette Bjørndal from Norwegian School of Economics, on September 9 2011.
Speeches with greetings to the new center were made by deputy rector Berit Rokne at University of Bergen, director general Christine B. Meyer from the Norwegian Competition Authority, dean Knut Helland from Faculty of Social Sciences at University of Bergen and dean Asbjørn Strandbakken at Faculty of Law at University of Bergen.
In 2012 BECCLE joined a European network of research institutions with a similar focus: Competition Law and Economics European Network – CLEEN. You can read more about CLEEN here.
The center is located in Jekteviksbakken 31 in the heart of Bergen, Norway.