Norwegians oppkjøp av Widerøe
2023-09-21 14:30 - 16:00 (Europe/Oslo) | Hordaland
Norwegian har inngått avtale om å kjøpe Widerøe for litt over en milliard kroner. Oppkjøpet er meldt til Konkurransetilsynet og krever deres godkjennelse. Det er en konkret vurdering som vil avgjøre om Norwegian får ja til oppkjøpet. På dette seminaret vil vi foreta en prinsipiell diskusjon av de rettslige og økonomiske rammene for et eventuelt inngrep. Vi vil blant annet drøfte tidligere praksis i lignende saker, hvilken inngrepsterskel som skal legges til grunn i lys av rettspraksis (nå nylig CK Telecom dommen), og eventuelt hvilke avhjelpende tiltak som kan være aktuelle.
For å belyse saken både fra et rettslig og et økonomisk perspektiv, vil disse innlede på seminaret:

Professor Erling J. Hjelmeng, Universitetet i Oslo (og Norges Handelshøyskole)
Professor Lars Sørgard, Norges Handelshøyskole

Det vil bli åpning for spørsmål og kommentarer fra salen.
OPPTAK AV SEMINARET
Seminaret vil foregå:

Tid: Torsdag 21. september kl 14.30-16.00
Sted: Auditorium 4, Juridisk Fakultet, Universitet i Bergen

Seminaret vil være fysisk, men vil også bli strømmet. Link for digital deltagelse
Sørgards presentasjon
Hjelmengs presentasjon

Structural presumptions in merger control?
2023-06-14 10:00 - 12:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
There is a debate in both the US and Europe about the principles of merger control. One view is that we should move towards having more presumptions in merger reviews, and then move partly away from a pure effects-based approach. Tommasso Valletti is proposing such a shift in the procedures for merger control. He is professor in economics at Imperial College in London, adjunct professor at Norwegian School of Economics and BECCLE, and a former chief economist at DG COMP.
In this seminar he will present his view, where he argues that there should be more structural presumptions in merger control. Your can read about his view HERE. Three Norwegian experts on competition policy will comment on his talk:

Deputy Director Marita Skjæveland, Norwegian Competition Authority
Partner Beret Sundet, BAHR law firm
Partner Jostein Skaar, Oslo Economics

The seminar will be held:

Auditorium 4, Faculty of Law at University of Bergen
Wednesday June 14 at 10:00-11:45

You are welcome to attend the seminar physically. Note that it will also be streamed.
The seminar can be seen in replay here.
The slides can be seen here: Marita Skjæveland, Jostein Skaar, Tommaso Valletti

BECCLE Competition Policy Conference 2023
2023-06-01 08:00 - 2023-06-02 16:00 | Hordaland
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) is pleased to announce the seventh annual conference on competition policy on the 1st and 2nd of June 2023 in Bergen, Norway.
The conference will combine sessions with invited speakers and contributed sessions with presentations and discussions of original research papers in the fields of competition law and competition economics.
Time and date: 1st of June at 09:00 until 2nd of June at 16:00
Location: Faculty of Law, University of Bergen (Address: Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1)
Contact: For any questions, please contact the organising committee by using the following email address: local2023BECCLE@uib.no
Information about the conference
The BECCLE conference is open also for persons not presenting a paper, and there is no conference fee. Lunch will be served for all attendees. All presenters pay their own travel and accommodation expenses.
The program can be found HERE.
You find information about the transport to and from the airport HERE.
Note that there is an ICN (International Competition Network) Chief Economist Meeting in Bergen back-to-back with the BECCLE conference. It gathers chief economists and senior economists from competition agencies worldwide and leading academics to discuss competition policy issues. On the afternoon of Wednesday May 31 this meeting will be open to the public, and you are welcome to attend it. There will be two sessions open for the public, one session on buyer-side market power (academic lead: Nancy Rose) and one session on coordinated effects in mergers (academic lead: Nathan Miller). See the preliminary program for the open sessions HERE. We will keep you updated on our BECCLE Conference webpage on details. Although this is an opportunity for you to attend it, note that the BECCLE Conference starts Thursday morning.
Registration
Registration for the BECCLE Conference is now closed.
Registration for the ICN Meeting open for BECCLE participants is now closed.
The deadline for registration for the BECCLE Conference will be May 20, and for the ICN Chief Economist Meeting will be May 10.
Keynote speakers

Professor Natalia Fabra, Department of Economics at Universidad Carlos III Madrid: Reform in the European electricity market
Professor Heike Schweitzer, Faculty of Law at Humboldt University in Berlin: Ex ante vs ex post enforcement of competition law

Invited sessions

Competition Law & Economics and Sustainability (organized by Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui at Faculty of Law at University of Bergen)

Leigh Hancher (moderator), University of Tilburg
Cristina Volpin, OECD
Nicole Rosenboom, Oxera
Anna Gerbrandy, Utrecht University

Legal and Liability Standards in Antitrust Enforcement: Developments and Open Questions (organized by Yannis Katsoulacos at Athens University of Economics and Business)

Yannis Katsoulacos (moderator and speaker)
Anne Witt, EDHEC Augmented Law Institute
Frederic Jenny, ESSEC Paris Business School

Submissions of papers
The contributed sessions will include papers on all topics in the fields of competition law and competition economics, both theoretical and empirical, as well as case studies. Papers should be submitted as a pdf file to the e-mail address conference2023BECCLE@uib.no. The deadline for submission is expired (March 1, 2023). Authors of accepted papers was notified before April 1, 2023. All papers will be allocated a discussant, and presenters may be asked to discuss a paper.
You can download the BECCLE 2023 Call for Papers as a pdf file HERE.
Scientific committee

Lars Sørgard (NHH and BECCLE)
Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen (University of Bergen and BECCLE)
Ronny Gjendemsjø (University of Bergen and BECCLE)
Bjørn Olav Johansen (University of Bergen and BECCLE)
Özlem Bedre-Defolie (ESMT Berlin and U Bergen/BECCLE)
Frode Steen (NHH and BECCLE)
Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Eeva Mauring (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Øivind Anti Nilsen (NHH and BECCLE)
Kurt Brekke (NHH and BECCLE)
Morten Sæthre (NHH and BECCLE)
Anantha Divakaruni (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Anna Ignatenko (NHH and BECCLE)
Thomas Vinje (Clifford Chance and U Bergen)
Tommaso Valletti (imperial College London and NHH/BECCLE)
Mateusz Mysliwski (NHH and BECCLE)
Teis Lunde Lømo (HVL and BECCLE)

Local organising committee

Emil Mathias Strøm Halseth (NHH)
Alina Ozhegova (NHH)
Marte Reisæter (U Bergen)
Øyvind Erstad Villanger (U Bergen)

Mergers and Demand-Enhancing Innovation
2023-05-16 12:15 - 13:30 | Room E209/E210, Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics, Helleveien 30, Bergen, Norway
CANCELLED! (Due to cancelled flight)
Yassine Lefouili from the Toulouse School of Economics will give a seminar on Mergers and Demand-Enhancing Innovation. This is a joint seminar of the Centre for Business Economics (NHH) and BECCLE.

Abstract
We study the impact of horizontal mergers on merging firms’ incentives to invest in demand-enhancing innovation. In our baseline model, we identify four effects of a symmetric merger on these incentives: the innovation diversion effect, the margin expansion effect, the demand expansion effect, and the per unit return to innovation effect. We offer sufficient conditions for a merger to reduce or raise merging firms’ incentives to innovate in the absence of spillovers and efficiency gains in R&D, and find that a comparison between the innovation diversion and price diversion ratios is informative about the impact of a merger on innovation.

The seminar will take place on the 16th of May from 12.15 to 13.30 pm at the Department of Economics at NHH, room E209/210.

Energy infrastructure in times of energy and climate emergency
2023-05-11 10:00 - 11:45 | Auditoriet, Jus II, University of Bergen, Jekteviksbakken 31, Bergen, Norway
The Research group for Natural Resource Law, Environmental Law and Development Law and the Bergen Center for Competition Law & Economics (BECCLE), had the pleasure of hosting a hybrid webinar on the 11th of May at 10.00 am at the Faculty of Law University of Bergen on Energy infrastructure in times of energy and climate emergency. Three recognized experts presented their perspectives on the topic and the session was accompanied by an interactive Q&A.
Our speakers (and their topic titles) for this session were (click on the titles to see the presentations):

Lars Sørgard, Professor in Economics (NHH) and leader of the Energy Commission (Norway) – The state’s role in investment in more renewable energy: The Norwegian experience
Ronnie Belmans, Emeritus Professor in Electrical Energy Systems (KU Leuven) and EnergyVille – Building wind turbines offshore may be the easy part
Vaido Poldoja, Senior Legal Office (EFTA Surveillance Authority) and State aid expert – State aid news in times of energy and climate transformation

This session was moderated by Prof. Leigh Hancher (UiB, Tilburg & FSR).
Agenda:

10.00 Doors open
10.05 Seminar starts
11.20 Presentations finish
11.45 Q&A session ends

Recording of the seminar can be seen HERE
The seminar was held in the Auditorium of JUS II – https://goo.gl/maps/spvyZQpHsuDKRApV6

About our speakers and moderator:

Lars Sørgard is professor at Norwegian School of Economics and director of BECCLE. His research field is competition policy, and he served as the Director General of The Norwegian Competition Authority 2016-22. He has also done research and policy work on the energy market, now recently he was the leader of the Energy Commission that delivered its report in February this year (NOU 2022:3).

Ronnie Belmans received Ronnie Belmans is emeritus full professor at KU Leuven. His research interests include smart grids, security of energy supply, techno-economic aspects of the liberalisation of the electricity market and energy system modelling. He was co-founder and chairman of EnergyVille (until 2021), a research collaboration in Genk specializing in sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. From 2017-2022, he was chairman of the board of directors of the VREG, the Flemisch regulator for electricity & gas markets. Ronnie is also honorary chairman of the board of directors of the Belgian transmission system operator.

Vaido Poldoja is a Senior Legal Officer at the Competition and State aid directorate of the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA). Among other tasks, Vaido handles adopting ESA’s new Guidelines on State aid for Climate, Environmental protection and Energy. Prior to joining ESA, Vaido worked in various state aid units at the European Commission (DG Competition) and spent several years in private practice at a pan-Baltic law firm in Estonia.

Leigh Hancher is Professor of European Law at the University of Tilburg. She is a part-time Professor at the Florence School of Regulation within the European University Institute and the Director of the FSR Energy Union Law Area. Her research interests include energy market regulation, EU state aids and energy market governance. She has also been a Professor at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary, Canada, Head of Legal at the Energy Charter Secretariat in Brussels and a member of the Dutch Academic Advisory Council (WRR).

Finn/Nettbil saken: Lærdommer fra Høyesteretts dom
2023-04-11 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
I november 2020 forbød Konkurransetilsynet Schibsteds oppkjøp av Nettbil, basert på at det ville medføre en betydelig begrensning i effektiv konkurranse i markedet. Konkurranseklagenemnda ga i mai 2021 Konkurransetilsynet medhold. Partene anket til Gulating lagmannsrett, og de fikk i mars 2022 medhold. Staten anket saken inn for Høyesterett, og Høyesterett forkastet i februar 2023 anken. Det var hovedsakelig basert på at Finn og Nettbils produkter ikke konkurrerte med hverandre.
I dette seminaret ønsker vi å diskutere Finn/Nettbil saken, og hvilke implikasjoner Høyesteretts dom får for fremtidige saker om foretakssammenslutninger. For å belyse det både fra et juridisk og økonomisk ståsted, har vi følgende to innledere:

Professor Erling Hjelmeng, Institutt for Privatrett, Universitetet i Oslo
Professor Frode Steen, Institutt for samfunnsøkonomi, Norges Handelshøyskole

Det vil bli satt av god tid til spørsmål og innlegg fra salen.
Seminaret vil bli holdt:

Auditorium 4, Juridisk Fakultet, Universitetet i Bergen
Tirsdag 11. april kl 14.15-15.45

Seminaret vil også bli strømmet. Opptaket kan sees her. Lysbildene fra innleggene er vedlagt nedenfor.
Erling Hjelmeng , Frode Steen

Market investigation tool in Norway?
2022-10-21 10:00 - 12:00 | Auditorium 3, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Norway
Market investigation tool in Norway?

In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate about new competition law tools that could complement existing competition law tools. In the EU both the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) have been heavily debated. At the same time there are countries such as Iceland and United Kingdom that already for many years have had a competition tool called “market investigation”. This is a tool that makes it possible to investigate a particular industry, and propose measures to correct any adverse effect on competition even if there is no established violation of the competition rules. Earlier this year, the Norwegian Ministry for Industry and Fisheries proposed that the Norwegian Competition Authority should be given the authority to perform market investigations, similar to the CMA’s model. So far such a new competition tool has not been implemented. The seminar invites to a discussion on the pros and cons of such a new competition tool. To do this, we have three distinguished speakers:

Senior Director Daniel Gordon, Competition & Markets Authority, United Kingdom
Senior Advisor Hans-Petter Håvås Hanson, Norwegian Competition Authority
Partner Kristin Hjelmaas Valla, Kvale law firm

Daniel Gordon will explain the market investigation tool that has been used in the UK for many years, while Hans-Petter Håvås Hanson will discuss the main reasons for introducing such a competition tool in Norway. Kristin Hjelmaas Valla will discuss such a competition tool seen from the business society’s perspective.

When: Friday October 21, 10-12 am
Where: Auditorium 3, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen

The seminar will also be streamed HERE.

From bid rigging to zero pricing
2022-09-28 | NHH, Helleveien 30, Bergen, 5045, Norway
BECCLE, jointly with NHH, SNF and UiB, host this workshop gathering leading legal and economic experts specialized in the interaction between collusive practices and public procurements. Six international speakers plus the Head of The Norwegian Competition Authority, Tina Søreide, will be joining to discuss the law and economics of this important interaction.
Place: Karl Borch’s Auditorium, Norwegian School of Economics
Time: September 28, 08.00-16.00
For more information, see HERE.

Er fusjonskontrollen for streng?
2022-09-01 10:00 - 11:30 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
Seminar om inngrep mot fusjoner og oppkjøp
Griper Konkurransetilsynet for ofte inn mot fusjoner og oppkjøp i Norge, eller burde det blitt grepet enda oftere inn mot fusjoner og oppkjøp? Internasjonalt foregår det en debatt om dette temaet, der både konkurransejurister og konkurranseøkonomer har ulike synspunkter på om dagens praksis er for streng. Det er også flere eksempler på at inngrep er blitt prøvet ut i rettssystemet. Denne internasjonale debatten er også relevant for Norge, da vi har harmonisert vår inngrepsterskel med den som er i EU.

Det er også en debatt i Norge om dette temaet, blant annet som følge av at to forbudsvedtak fra Konkurransetilsynet før sommeren ble opphevet av hhv Konkurranseklagenemnda (DnB/Sbanken, rettskraftig vedtak) og Gulating lagmannsrett (Finn/Nettbil, anket til Høyesterett). Vurdert opp mot inngrepsterskelen (den såkalt SIEC – i betydelig grad vil hindre effektiv konkurranse), er Konkurransetilsynet for strenge eller for lite strenge?

Vi ønsker å belyse dette spørsmålet både fra et juridisk og et økonomisk ståsted. Innledere er

Partner Heidi Jorkjend, Advokatfirmaet Thommessen
Professor Eirik Østerud, Institutt for Privatrett, Universitetet i Oslo
Professor Tommy S. Gabrielsen, Institutt for økonomi, Universitetet i Bergen

Seminaret vil bli holdt

Auditorium 4, Juridisk Fakultet, Universitetet i Bergen
Torsdag 1. september kl 10-11.30

Seminaret vil også bli strømmet. Trykk HER for strømming.

Joint purchasing of energy in the EU - competition law barriers and geopolitical implications
2022-06-09 10:00 - 12:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
On the 9th of June, The Bergen Centre for Competition Law and Economics and the Research Group for Natural Resource Law, Environmental Law and Development Law hosted a hybrid seminar on joint purchasing of energy with a special focus on competition law barriers and geopolitical implications of joint purchase of gas.
There is a public debate now regarding the function that joint gas procurement might play in energy procurement in Europe. This calls for clarification on exactly which problem joint procurement should address, which entails the scope of gas contracts that would be considered, economic implications and how implementation might work.
For more information about the seminar, see HERE or check each speaker’s slides (click on the title). The seminar is recorded, and can be found HERE.

The speakers on the seminar were the following:

Professor Leigh Hancher, European Law at the University of Tilburg: The joint purchasing options in a moving energy landscape
Associate Professor Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen:Competition law and joint purchasing of energy
Professor Lars Sørgard, Norwegian School of Economics and BECCLE: Implications of the decisions for energy markets and Norway
Partner Monica Syrdal, Hjort law firm: Organizing joint energy purchasing: practical considerations

BECCLE Competition Policy Conference 2022
2022-06-02 - 2022-06-03 | Hordaland
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) is pleased to announce the sixth annual conference on competition policy on the 2nd and 3rd of June in Bergen, Norway.
The conference combines sessions with invited speakers and presentations and discussions of original research papers in the fields of competition law and economics.
Time and date: 2 and 3 June 2022
Location: NHH Norwegian School of Economics
Contact: For any questions, please contact the organising committee via beccle@nhh.no
Registration: The BECCLE conference is open also for persons not presenting a paper. HERE you can register for the conference.
Topics for the keynote speakers and invited sessions at the 2022 BECCLE conference will be (i) abuse/vertical restraints in digital markets or (ii) merger evaluations. The contributed sessions will include papers on all topics on competition law and economics, both theoretical and empirical, as well as case studies. The deadline for submissions has now passed. Authors of accepted papers will be notified no later than April 21, 2022. All papers will be allocated a discussant, and presenters may be asked to discuss a paper.
Keynote speakers:

Professor Volker Nocke, University of Mannheim
Professor Pinar Akman, University of Leeds
Professor Massimo Motta, ICREA-Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona Graduate School of Economics

Invited speakers:
Merger evaluation

Joel Stiebale, Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics
Celine Bonnet, Toulouse School of Economics
Franco Mariuzzo, University of East Anglia

Abuse/Vertical restraint in digital markets

Özlem Bedre Defolie, ESMT Berlin
Andres Hervas-Drane, Bayes Business School
Nikhil Vellodi, Paris School of Economics

Title for the invited session on law: “Competition Law and Digital Markets: Vertical Restraints and the Digital Markets Act”

Professor Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel, University of Liège
Professor David Bosco, Aix-Marseille University
Professor Bjørn Lundqvist, Stockholm University

The program can be found HERE.
Additional Information
There is no conference fee. We offer lunch free of charge to all attendees. We also offer a conference dinner (free of charge) to all presenters. Information about registration will be available here soon. The conference hotel is Thon Hotel Bristol Bergen. Invited speakers and contributed speakers will receive information by email on how to proceed to book a room at the conference hotel. Contributed speakers will have to pay for travel and accommodation.
Conference organizers
Scientific Committee

Greg Shaffer (U Rochester and UoB/BECCLE)
Thibaud Verge (ENSAE ParisTech and NHH/BECCLE)
Özlem Bedre-Defolie (ESMT Berlin)
Joseph Harrington (U Pennsylvania and NHH/BECCLE)
Erling Hjelmeng (U Oslo and BECCLE)
Frode Steen (NHH and BECCLE)
Malin Arve (NHH and BECCLE)
Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ronny Gjendemsjø (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Bjørn Olav Johansen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Tore Nilssen (U Oslo and BECCLE)
Eeva Mauring (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Lars Sørgard (NHH and BECCLE)
Kurt Brekke (NHH and BECCLE)
Ingrid Margrethe Halvorsen Barlund (U Bergen and BECCLE)

Local Organising Committee

Marianne Boge (NHH)
Paula Navarro Sarmiento (NHH)
Emil Mathias Strøm Halseth (NHH)
Marte Reisæter (U Bergen)

Seminar on EU merger control
2022-05-24 12:15 - 13:30 | Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics, Room E209/E210, Helleveien 30, Bergen, Norway
Tomaso Duso will present his empirical study of EU merger control, done jointly with Paula Affeldt, Klaus Gugler and Joanna Piechucka. They analyze more than 1000 mergers scrutinized by the European Commission between 1980 and 2019. One finding from their study is that they are concerned about the Commission’s merger enforcement being too lax.
Time: May 24 2022, 12.15-13.30
Venue: Room E209/210, Norwegian School of Economics
This is a joint seminar with Center for Business Economics (CBE) at NHH

Download paper here.

Abstract: Worldwide, the overwhelming majority of large horizontal mergers are cleared by antitrust authorities unconditionally. The presumption seems to be that efficiencies from these mergers are sizeable. We calculate the compensating efficiencies that would prevent a merger from harming consumers for 1,014 mergers affecting 12,325 antitrust markets scrutinized by the European Commission between 1990 and 2018. Compensating efficiencies seem too large to be achievable for many mergers. Barriers to entry and the number of firms active in the market are the most important factors determining their size. We highlight concerns about the Commission’s merger enforcement being too lax.

Seminar om prisregulering på dagligvarer
2022-05-06 10:30 - 13:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
Bør innkjøpspriser på dagligvarer reguleres?
Det har i flere år pågått en debatt angående forskjeller i innkjøpspriser på dagligvarer og hvordan det evt. påvirker konkurransen i dagligvaremarkedet. Denne debatten er nå igjen aktuell, etter at SV nylig har sendt et representantforslag til Stortinget om å regulere innkjøpspriser på dagligvare. Vi har bedt tre akademikere og tre personer fra bransjen kommentere forslaget fra SV:
Professor Espen Moen, BI,
Professor Øystein Foros, NHH,
Førsteamanuensis Ronny Gjendemsjø, Universitetet i Bergen,
Karl Alveng Munthe-Kaas, Oda
Stein Rømmerud, Norgesgruppen
Helge Hasselgård, Dagligvareleverandørenes Forening

Seminaret avsluttes med en paneldebatt ledet av Tor Arne Fanghol fra universitetsavisen Khrono.
Seminaret kan følges både fysisk og digitalt.

Seminar on the General Court’s Google shopping judgment
2022-04-29 10:15 - 12:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
BECCLE is organizing a seminar about the General Court’s judgments in the Google shopping case and the Intel case with several well distinguished speakers. The judgment raises several interesting issues related to competition in digital markets, and the speakers will discuss the judgment from different angles.
Thomas Vinje (partner of Clifford and Chance and assistant professor II Faculty of Law, University of Bergen), will give an overview of the judgment
Jorge Padilla (Compass Lexecon) will discuss the implications of the General Court’s rulings in the Google Shopping and Intel cases for the standard of proof in Article 102 TFEU
Cani Fernandez (president of the Spanish Competition Authorities) will discuss the interface between antitrust law and the Digital Markets act in the light of the Google Shopping judgment.
Time: Friday 29th April at 10:15 to 12:00
Venue: Auditorium 4, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen (Magnus Lagabøtes Plass 1)
The seminar will also be streamed on Zoom.

Sustainability and competition law – a conflict?
2022-04-07 12:15 - 14:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
Professor Maarten Pieter Schinkel
A more sustainable society is needed to slow down and ultimately reverse the rapid climate change. For firms to become more sustainable, they are often encouraged to join forces for example by entering sustainability agreements. This triggers the questions of whether the ban on anticompetitive agreements is a problem when faced with these types of climate friendly collaborations, and if so, whether competition law should be revised in order to allow for sustainability considerations to be taken into account as possible justifications under the prohibition against anticompetitive agreements.
BECCLE is pleased to announce a panel of four expert speakers:

Professor Maarten Pieter Schinkel, University of Amsterdam (presentation)
Associate professor Ronny Gjendemsjø, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen (presentation)
Director General Tina Søreide, Norwegian Competition Authority (presentation)
Partner Siri Teigum, Thommessen Law Firm
Lawyer Kristoffer Grøndahl, Thommessen Law Firm (presentation)

Time: Thursday April 7 at 12:15-14:00
Venue: Auditorium 4, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen (Magnus Lagabøtes Plass 1)
You can also follow the seminar on Zoom. To join us on Zoom, please follow the invitation link below:
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 614 9628 6840
Password: [REDACTED]

The role of privacy in competition law
2020-09-23 12:30 - 14:00 | Hordaland
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE), the Research group for EU/EEA Commercial law and the Research group for Information and Innovation law, are pleased to announce a guest lecture by Ms. Arletta Gorecka, PhD Candidate in Law at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. In the lecture, Ms. Gorecka will elaborate on the role of privacy in competition law by presenting two recent cases. The lecture will take place 23. September via Zoom (the link is published below).
“The relationship between competition law and privacy is still seen as problematic with academics and professionals trying to adequately assess the impact of privacy on the competition law sphere.” Indeed, it is not difficult to agree with Ms. Gorecka, whose research is dedicated to the increasingly more interesting interplay between competition law and personal data protection.In June, Ms Gorecka published a chapter “Is “Privacy” a means to protect the competition or advance objectives of innovation and consumer welfare?” in Maria Tzanou (Ed.), Personal Data Protection and Legal Developments in the European Union Hershey, PA, IGI Global, 2020.
Ms. Gorecka will elaborate on the topic by examining two recent cases. The first concerns Facebook, an online social media and social networking service that does not require any further introduction. On 23 June 2020, the German Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) provisionally confirmed the allegation of Facebook abusing dominant position as a result of Facebook’s terms of service that allow for the processing and use of user data, which are collected online outside the Facebook platform. The German Competition Authority (Bundeskartellamt) prohibited Facebook from processing such data without additional consent given by private users. On 23 June the antitrust division of the Federal Court of Justice decided that the Bundeskartellamt’s prohibition can be enforced.
The second case concerns the European Commission’s in-depth investigation into the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google. Fitbit is an American company active in the development, manufacturing and distribution of wearable devices (both smartwatches and fitness trackers) and connected scales in the health and wellness sector, as well as in the supply of related software and services. As provided in the press release, the Commission is concerned that the proposed transaction would further entrench Google’s market position in the online advertising markets by increasing the already vast amount of data that Google could use for personalisation of the ads it serves and displays. As Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, responsible for competition policy, clarified: “The use of wearable devices by European consumers is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. This will go hand in hand with an exponential growth of data generated through these devices. This data provides key insights about the life and the health situation of the users of these devices. Our investigation aims to ensure that control by Google over data collected through wearable devices as a result of the transaction does not distort competition.”
The lecture will take place via Zoom. To participate in the lecture, follow this Zoom link. The Meeting ID is: 615 0939 2478. The password is: 1b927s02.

Canceled: Bergen Competition Policy Conference 2020
2020-04-23 08:00 - 2020-04-24 17:00 | NHH, Helleveien 30, Bergen, 5045, Norway
The BECCLE conference has been canceled due to the recent developments of COVID-19 outbreak in Norway. We are considering the possibility of setting a new date for the conference this fall.
*
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) is pleased to announce the sixth annual conference on competition policy on the 23st and 24nd of April in Bergen, Norway.
The conference combines sessions with invited speakers and presentations and discussions of original research papers in the fields of competition law and economics.
Time and date: 23 and 24 April 2020
Location: NHH Norwegian School of Economics
Contact: For any questions, please contact the organising committee via beccle2020@nhh.no
For the open sessions at the BECCLE conference, we welcome both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as case studies. Lawyers are especially encouraged to submit papers. Submission deadline expired on February 3, 2020. Authors of accepted papers will be notified no later than March 9, 2020. All papers will be allocated a discussant, and presenters may be asked to discuss a paper.
Register here
Keynote speakers

Professor Aviv Nevo, University of Pennsylvania
Professor Bruno Jullien, TSE
More speakers will be announced soon

Invited speakers:

Professor Armin Schmutzler, University of Zurich
Professor Stephen Davies, University of East Anglia
Associate Professor Chiara Fumagalli, Bocconi University
Professor Thibaud Vergé, CREST, ENSAE ParisTech.
Professor Joseph Harrington, University of Pennsylvania

Additional Information
There is no conference fee. We offer lunch free of charge to all attendees. We also offer a conference dinner (free of charge) to all presenters.
We have reserved a room block for our conference participants at Thon Hotel Orion. Please check this web page for reservation and rate information. Booking deadline: Friday 3 April.
Conference organizers
Scientific Committee

Greg Shaffer (U Rochester and UoB/BECCLE)
Thibaud Verge (ENSAE ParisTech and NHH/BECCLE)
Özlem Bedre-Defolie (ESMT Berlin)
Joseph Harrington (U Pennsylvania and NHH/BECCLE)
Erling Hjelmeng (U Oslo and BECCLE)
Frode Steen (NHH and BECCLE)
Malin Arve (NHH and BECCLE)
Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ronny Gjendemsjø (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Simen Aardal Ulsaker (NHH and BECCLE)
Bjørn Olav Johansen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Tore Nilssen (U Oslo and BECCLE)

Local Organising Committee

Olga Pushkash (NHH)
Alina Ozhegova (NHH and BECCLE)
Emil Mathias Strøm Halseth (NHH and BECCLE)
Ingrid Halvorsen Barlund (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Teis Lunde Lømo (U Bergen and BECCLE).

Seminar on input price discrimination
2020-01-17 12:45 - 14:00 | Department of Economics, University of Bergen, seminar room 327, Fosswinckels gate 14, Bergen, 5007, Norway
BECCLE together with the Department of Economics are pleased to invite you to a seminar with Germain Gaudin (Copenhagen Business School) on Friday January 17. Gaudin will present his paper entitled “Input price discrimination, demand forms, and welfare’’ (joint work with Romain Lestage). The paper studies industries in which retailers face asymmetric input prices from their upstream suppliers, such as the Norwegian grocery market.
Please note that the venue is the Department of Economics, University of Bergen (Fosswinckelsgate 14), Seminar room 327 (3rd floor).
Abstract: “In this paper, we analyse the effects of input price discrimination by an upstream monopolist selling to firms with various degrees of efficiency. When downstream markets are independent, we first study whether the upstream monopolist has an incentive to reduce or to increase the relative cost difference amongst downstream firms. Then, we examine the impact of input price discrimination on output and welfare. A key determinant of the effects of input price discrimination on prices, output, and welfare is the sum of demand curvature and pass-through elasticity. We apply our findings to the set of demand forms with constant pass-through rates, as well as other demand forms. We also discuss the cases of demand asymmetries across markets and price competition downstream”.

Investing in our future, divesting from our past. From climate risk to climate opportunity
2020-01-16 08:30 - 16:00 | Bergen Literature House, Østre Skostredet 5, 5017 Bergen, Bergen, 5017, Norway
Photo: Jason Blackeye on Unsplash

Registration for the conference is done through this link, by January 9th (registration, breakfast and lunch is free of charge).
The 16th of January 2020, from 08:30 to 16:00, the law faculty at the University of Bergen and the Research group for Natural Resource Law, Environmental Law and Development Law in cooperation with Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), the Research group for international law and the Research group for EU/EEA Commercial Law invite you to a conference with the theme “Investing in our future, divesting from our past. From climate risk to climate opportunity”. The conference is part of Klimafestivalen § 112 – Bergen 2020.
The University of Bergen, Norway, is hosting a conference on the normative implications of climate risk for divestment approaches, metrics, and due diligence on 16 January 2020, at Bergen Litteraturhus, from 9am-4pm. The conference builds also on one of the European Green Deal’s thematic areas, sustainable finance, and addresses it with economists, lawyers, jurists, linguists, film directors, and political scientists from the University of Bergen, the Norwegian School of Economics, Frankfurt School of Management and Finance, the University of Oslo, IDDRI Paris, and Columbia University. For more information, follow this link.

Seminar om hvorfor og hvordan man kan stimulere til lokal deltagelse i anskaffelsesprosesser
2019-10-17 12:15 - 14:00 | Auditoriet, Jus II, University of Bergen, Jekteviksbakken 31, Bergen, Norway
John Unwing/Unsplash.

17. Oktober inviterer BECCLE til et seminar om hvorfor og hvordan man kan stimulere til lokal deltakelse i offentlige anskaffelsesprosesser. Seminaret finner sted fra 12:15-14:00 i Auditoriet i Jusbygg II på det juridiske fakultet ved Universitetet i Bergen. Forsker Malin Arve (NHH) vil snakke om hvorfor dette er økonomisk lønnsomt og Ragnhild Kristina Ølstad (Inventura) vil presentere det juridiske handlingsrommet og hvordan man kan stimulere til økt konkurranse og deltakelse. Til sist vil representanter fra Sykehusinnkjøp presentere hvordan de legger til rette for bred deltakelse både fra lokale og nasjonale bedrifter i sine utlysninger.
Et argument for å sentralisere innkjøp er stordriftsfordeler, men faren er at små og lokale bedrifter ikke får mulighet til å delta i konkurransen.
I fjor fikk Kjetil Smørås og hotellkjeden De Bergenske erfare dette da de ikke fikk delta i konkurransen om en hotellavtale med Helse Bergen. Smørås fikk støtte fra både politikere og Konkurransetilsynet. Dette fikk Sykehusinnkjøp (som var ansvarlig for konkurransen til Helse Bergen) til å se nærmere på hvordan de kan innrette anskaffelser slik at de kan ivareta små og mellomstore kjeder og enkeltstående hoteller.
Senest i august 2019 ble Kjetil Smørås og De Bergenske utsatt for det samme igjen. Denne gangen i en anbudskonkurranse om hotelltjenester utlyst av Universitets- og høgskolerådet.
Dette seminaret tar for seg hvorfor det er økonomisk lønnsomt å inkludere små og mellomstore bedrifter i anskaffelsesprosessen, hva loven sier og det juridiske handlingsrommet, samt vil Sykehusinnkjøp bli brukt som en konkret case for hvordan dette kan gjøres i praksis.

Seminar on EU state aid regulation
2019-10-16 10:00 - 11:30 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
Patric Tomasso/Unsplash.

The Research Group for EU/EEA, Competition and Market Law and Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) are pleased to invite you to a seminar with Linda Nyberg, from the department of political science at Lund University, Sweden, on EU state aid regulation. The seminar will take place at the 16th of October, from 10:00 to 11:30, in Auditorium 4, Law Building 1, at the University of Bergen.
Ever wondered why policymakers seem so convinced that more competition is the solution to all political and economic problems? Or why “free market” reform tends to end up in new forms of bureaucratic government rather than less? This seminar will try to answer these broader questions by focusing on the ideological basis of EU state aid regulation – a set of rules that prevents governments at all political levels from acting in ways that distorts competition.

Linda Nyberg (phd) has a postdoc position at the department of political science at Lund University, Sweden. Her presentation is a summary of her dissertation Market bureaucracy. Neoliberalism, Competition and State Aid Policy that can be downloaded from this link. Her current research project focus on bureaucratization and better regulation policy.

Seminar on the Extraterritorial Effects of EU Economic Law – EU Law Beyond the Union
2019-10-02 09:00 - 10:00 | Auditorium 4, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Hordaland, 5010, Norway
Photo: Sean Pollock, Unsplash.

For registration to the Seminar, click this link. The registration deadline is the 1st of October, at 18:00.

The Research Group for EU/EEA Competition and Market Law and Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) are pleased to invite you to a seminar with Ass. Prof. Nuno Cunha Rodriguez, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration at the University of Lisbon, Portugal, on the Extraterritorial Effects of EU Economic Law – EU Law Beyond the Union, at 2nd of Oktober, from 09:00 to 10:00, in Auditorium 4, Law Building 1, University of Bergen.
The application of EU Economic Law considers an appropriate link with the territory of the Union in respect to the basic principle of territoriality enshrined in public international law. However, in some cases, public international law allows States to exercise their jurisdiction extraterritorially. Including enforcing decisions of its institutions elsewhere, and which has caused stir in Norway for example in the case of ACER in energy matters, but also other areas such as financing and banking markets.
Over the years, EU Economic law has been expanding its territorial application, by applying exceptions to the principle of territoriality and adding new elements of connection.
This phenomenon – that we designate the “territorial expansion of EU Economic law” – can be noticed in different branches of law, like competition law – which was reinforced after the Intel case (case C-413/14 P) -, Environmental Law, Food and Consumer Law, Data Protection and International Trade Law.
Although it’s clear that, according to the inherent territorial scope of TFEU rules, the EC is not competent to assess an undertaking established outside the EU, it’s also clear that the final decisions of the EC or the ECJ can produce jurisdictional effects in third countries.
All these topics will be analyzed at the conference.
This BECCLE Seminar will take place in Auditorium 4 at the Law Faculty of the University of Bergen, located at the right-hand side when you enter the main entrance of the Faculty, from 09:00 to 10:00.
For Norwegian Lawyers: Dersom det er nok interesse for dette, vil kursbevis i etterkant av kurset bli utstedt til deltakerne til bruk for registrering av etterutdanning. For mer informasjon om registrering av etterutdanning hos Advokatforeningen, klikk denne linken.

Ass. Prof. Nuno Cunha Rodriguez, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
To be updated on BECCLE’s activities, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Lunchtime lecture on the "Fosen Line" saga
2019-09-10 12:15 - 13:30 | Auditorium 2, Juridisk Fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, 5050, Norway
Vidar Nordli-Mathisen (Unsplash).

The Research Group for EU/EEA, Competition and Market Law are pleased to invite you to the first of three Lunchtime Lectures being held this Autumn, about the “Fosen Line” saga. The lecture will be held by Ragnhild Kristina Ølstad and will take place at the Faculty of Law, University of Bergen.

Ragnhild Kristina Ølstad will talk about the main hearing in the Fosen Line case, which is currently pending before the Supreme Court of Norway. The case concerns the conditions for obtaining compensation for positive contract interest in Norwegian public procurement law.
The case caused a real stir after Frostating Court of Appeal decided to effectively ignore a judgement from the EFTA Court regarding the interpretation of the Remedies Directive – the first time such a rejection has come from a lower instance court in Norway. The case made controversy again when the Supreme Court of Norway decided to ask the EFTA Court for a second judgement in the very same case.
The case raises questions regarding Norway’s obligations under the EEA agreement, the understanding of the Remedies Directive and the relationship between national courts in the EFTA States and the EFTA Court. The topics raised are thus highly relevant to all three EU/EEA courses on offer this term, but should also be of interest for students in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year of study.

Ragnhild Kristine Ølstad, Inventura.
Ragnhild Kristina Ølstad works with public procurement law in Inventura AS. She wrote her master’s thesis of law at UiB in the spring of 2018 about damages for positive contract interest in procurement. The thesis focuses on the Fosen Line case, the term “material error” in Norwegian law in light of the remedies directive.

Seminar on Case Resolution Mechanisms under Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
2019-08-22 13:00 - 14:30 | Auditoriet, Jus II, University of Bergen, Jekteviksbakken 31, Bergen, Norway
Photo: Private
The Research Group for EU/EEA Commercial Law and Bergen Centre for Competition Law and
Economics (BECCLE) are pleased to invite you to a seminar with senior advisor at the Swedish
Competition Authority, Katharina Voss, Thursday the 22nd of August at the Faculty of Law,
University of Bergen.
Voss defended her PhD thesis entitled “Between Enforcement and Regulation. A Study of the System
of Case Resolution Mechanisms used by the European Commission in the Enforcement of Articles
101 and 102 TFEU” in April 2019. At the seminar, Voss will talk about her research and the main
findings of her thesis. In her thesis, Voss examines the current design of the system of case resolution
mechanisms used by the European Commission where an infringement of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU
is suspected. She further advances some proposals regarding this design. Please note that the seminar will not be recorded.
For more about Voss’ research, please follow this link.

BECCLE International Seminar on Utilities Procurement
2019-06-27 11:30 - 15:00 | Hordaland
On the 27th of June we will have an international half a day seminar on the “Utilities Procurement” which will be
organized by the Bergen Center for Competition Law & Economics and the Faculty of Law of the University of Bergen.

The event will take place starting from 11.30 and should be finished around 15.00, including a lunch break, at Seminar room 2, of the Law Faculty.

Utilities, such as providers of services as necessary as water, electricity, gas, transportation, and postal services, are entities that may or may not be under the scope of application of the EU/EEA and national public procurement rules when carrying out purchases. Despite of their importance and economic significance, the application of the procurement regime to these type of entities is under discussed, including the particularities of this regime – which is ‘lighter’ than the traditional one but also more prone to negotiation. In this international seminar we aim at stirring the debate on the regulation of utilities procurement with four presentations from international specialists in the field.

Agenda & Speakers:
Location: Seminar room 2, Faculty of Law, UiB – Bergen
Session I: 11.30 to 13.00
– Prof. Patricia Valcárcel Fernández, University of Vigo (Spain) – “Utilities Procurement and Competition: The
Spanish Case”
• Dr. Sune Troels Poulsen, attorney, former associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, “Article 79 of
the Utilities Directive: Relying on the capacities of other entities when applying for qualification for a public contract and for substituting such entities during the tender procedure and under the performance of the contract.”

Lunch break 13.00 to 13.30

Session II: Exposure to Competition, 13.30 to 15.00
• Rachel Harriet, EFTA Surveillance Authority – “A practical perspective on exemptions under the Utilities
Directive”
• Dr. Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, University of Bergen – “Sufficient Exposure to Competition & Energy
Utilities”

In case you would like to attend the seminar, please send an email to Ignacio.herrera-anchustegui@uib.no to
calculate food orders. The seminar is free of charge.

Seminar on The Competitiveness and Regulation of Offshore Wind Electricity
2019-05-20 11:30 - 16:00 | Seminarrom 2, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB
Photo by Nicholas Doherty on Unsplash.

Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE), Bergen Offshore Wind Centre (BOW), and the Aberdeen University Centre for Energy Law (AUCEL), are pleased to invite you to the international seminar “The Competitiveness and Regulation of Offshore Wind Electricity” to be held at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bergen.

Venue: Seminar Room 2, 4th floor, The Faculty of Law.

To register for the event, lunch and refreshments, please send an email to Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui.

The importance of renewable energy is beyond any doubt for the development of our society and the aim of minimizing the impact of climate change. In this development one of the relatively new actors that has erupted with strength in the last decade is the production of electricity by offshore wind turbines. Offshorewind power is no longer a theoretical possibility but an economic reality as the price per megawatt hour produce is reduced, the turbines become more efficient, the technology allows for them to be deployed further into the sea and there appears to be less issues of social unacceptance to this technology. Thus, it comes with no surprise the interest, for example, of the Norwegian Government to develop this technology, nor that European countries, but also other nations like China are actively investing in offshore wind technology.

However, despite these advances, many questions remain unaltered when it comes to the economic viability, legal regulation and social perceptions concerning this source of renewable electricity.

In this international seminar we will discuss the competitiveness and regulation of offshore wind from an engineering, law and social science perspective and focusing on issues ranging from the North Sea to Australia.

Agenda and speakers

Meet, greet and lunch
Dr. Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui, UiB, Preliminary remarks
Prof. Finn Gunnar Nielsen, UiB and Director of BOW – The Bergen Offshore Wind Centre and Offshore wind realities and possibilities
Prof. Sigrid Schütz, UiB, From Strategic Marine Planning to Project Licences
Prof. Birgitte Egelund Olsen, University of Aarhus, Community acceptance of offshore wind projects: The Danish experience
Coffee break
Prof. Tina Hunter, University of Aberdeen and Director of AUCEL – An Ill Wind Blows: Perceptions of Wind In Australia And The Legal Framework That Perpetuates Wind Sceptics
Dr. Eddy Wifa, University of Aberdeen, Towards a Robust Offshore Wind Health and Safety Risk Governance: The UK Experience
PhD candidate Mary Gilmore-Maurer, University of Aberdeen, topic to be confirmed
Catharina Hovind, master student UiB, Offshorewind Licensing in Norway

Bergen Competition Policy Conference 2019
2019-04-25 08:30 - 2019-04-26 16:00 | Hordaland
Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) hosted the 5th annual conference on competition policy on the 25th and 26th of April 2019 in Bergen, Norway.
The conference combined sessions with invited speakers and presentations and discussions of original research papers in the fields of competition law and economics.
Time and date: 25 and 26 April 2019.
Location: Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
Contact: For any questions, please contact the organising committee by using the following email address: local2019@beccle.uib.no
The conference program is available for download here. Video recordings, and the slides, of most plenary sessions are now uploaded. The slides can be found by clicking the title of the presentations below.
Keynote speakers

Daniel P. O’Brien, Compass Lexecon
“Price Discrimination Policy in Intermediate Markets.” [Video]
Joseph E. Harrington Jr., U Pennsylvania and NHH/BECCLE
“Competition Law and Pricing Algorithms.” [Video]
Ariel Ezrachi, University of Oxford
“I can’t believe it’s not butter – The tale of digitalisation, competition and misconception.“ [Video]

Plenary sessions
The session “algorithms and markets” [Video]

Gabriele Rovigatti, Bank of Italy
“From Mad Men to Maths Men: Concentration and Buyer Power in Online Advertising.”
Timo Klein, U Amsterdam
“Autonomous Algorithmic Collusion: Q-Learning Under Sequential Pricing.”
Giacomo Calzolari, EUI
“Artificial intelligence, algorithmic pricing and collusion.”

A session “Input price discrimination and large buyers” [Video]

Claire Chambolle, INRA ALISS
“The Effect of Input Price Discrimination on Retail Prices: Theory and Evidence from France”
Hugo Molina, U Leuven
“Buyer Alliances in Vertically Related Markets”

Sadly, Greg Shaffer had to cancel.
A session on competition law [Video]

Lars Henriksson, Stockholm School of Economics
“Discrimination in EU Competition Law”
Björn Lundqvist, U Stockholm
“Data Collaboration, Pooling and Hoarding under Competition Law”

Organizers
Scientific Committee:

Greg Shaffer (U Rochester and NHH/BECCLE)
Thibaud Verge (ENSAE ParisTech and U Bergen/BECCLE)
Erling Hjelmeng (U Oslo and BECCLE)
Caroline Heide Jørgensen (U Copenhagen and BECCLE)
Frode Steen (NHH and BECCLE)
Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ronny Gjendemsjø (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Bjørn Olav Johansen (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui (U Bergen and BECCLE)
Simen Aardal Ulsaker (NHH and BECCLE)

Local Commitee

Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui
Ingrid Halvorsen Barlund
Charlotte Bjørnhaug Evensen
Håvard Mork Sandvik

Guest lecture: State aid and tender procedures
2019-03-12 11:00 - 12:00 | Seminar room 1, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Bergen, Norway
Photo: Avda / avda-foto.de

BECCLE has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar with Cees Dekker, Tuesday 12 March, on state aid and the tender procedure
Does a Tender Exclude an Article 107(1) TFEU Advantage?
One of the elements of the concept of State aid as referred to in Article 107(1) TFEU is the element of advantage. The element concerns an economic advantage that an undertaking could not have obtained under normal market conditions. A common opinion is that a tender procedure regarding the purchase or sale of goods or services by a government body guarantees those ‘normal market conditions’. It appears however that the European Commission in several occasions considered transactions between government bodies and undertakings as state aid even if that undertaking is selected by a tender procedure, for instance regarding the rollout of a charging pole infrastructure or the operation of a sports infrastructure. Furthermore, for a state aid measure to be compatible with the internal market the use of a tender procedure sometimes is required.
In this seminar, Cees Dekker will discuss these relations between state aid and tender procedures and the different approaches by the European Court of Justice and the European Commission.
Cees Dekker is a partner with law firm Nysingh in The Netherlands and has 30 years of experience in EU and Competition Law. In his practice focusing on state aid law, he advises government bodies and undertakings how to shape financial relations in such a way that they do not form illegal state aid. He has been involved in several state aid notofcation procedures with the European Commission. Apart from being a lawyer in private practice he is a guest lecturer in state aid law at the University of Amsterdam, a member of the board of editors of the journal Markt & Mededinging (“markets and competition”), as well as of the board of editors of Tijdschrift voor Staatssteun (Journal for State aid). He also is a member of the advisory committee on competition law of the Dutch Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers (VNO-NCW) and of the advisory committee on competition law of the Netherlands Bar Association. Recently he has been appointed as non-governmental advisor for the European Commission in the International Competition Network.
Time: Tuesday 12 March kl. 11.00 – 12.00
Place:: Seminarrom 1, Faculty of Law, University of Bergen
Speakers:
Cees DekkerPartner, Nysingh

Conference on Developments in Energy Markets
2019-01-14 09:00 - 2019-01-15 12:30 | Det juridiske fakultet, UiB, Magnus Lagabøtes Plass 1, Bergen, 5010, Norway
Photo by Basil Samuel Lade on Unsplash.

The Bergen Center for Competition Law & Economics (BECCLE) invites you to the international conference “Developments in Energy Markets: A multidisciplinary perspective”. This event will take place on the 14th and 15th of January 2019, at the Law Faculty of the University of Bergen.

The event is part of the research project “Regulating energy markets, a perspective from EEA/EU Competition and Public Procurement Law” financed thanks to the support of the AkademiaAvtalen (UiB and Equinor ASA)

Program:
The program can be downloaded here.

The conference aims to gather energy academics and practitioners from different backgrounds and disciplines to foster multidisciplinary exchange and future collaboration by serving as a forum for discussion of relevant and timely topics of interest in the energy world. Our focus will the future of energy markets and the intersection of law, economics, new technologies and economic geography.

Registration:
In case you would like to participate, please send an email to Ignacio Herrera Anchustegui to register your participation. You are welcome to participate both days or just some particular sessions only, depending on your schedule. Please do not hesitate to contact us in case you would require any additional information.

Conference venue:
Mon 14th: Auditorium at Jekteviksbakken 31 (Juss 2), entrance from Jekteviken or via the Faculty of Law.
Tue 15th: Auditorium 4 at the Faculty of Law (Dragefjellet skole), Magnus Lagabøtes Plass 1.

New seminar: State aid applied to environmental taxes
2018-12-04 12:00 - 13:00 | Seminarrom 2, Det juridiske fakultet, UiB
Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash

Research group for Competition and Market Law, Bergen Center for Competition Law and Economics (BECCLE) and Centre for climate and energy transformation (CET) have the pleasure to invite all who are interested in Green taxation and EU/EEA State aid rules to a seminar with Joana Pedroso, a PhD Student in Tax Law at the Department of Law at Gothenburg University.

The full title of the seminar is:
“State aid applied to environmental taxes – An analysis of the environmental protection and sustainable development objectives integration within the internal market”

The seminar will be in english.

Time: Tuesday December 4, 12.00 – 13.00
Place: Magnus Lagabøtes plass 1, Jusbygget, Seminar room 2 (408), 4th floor (circle formed)
Registration:Email to Judith.Dalsgard@uib.no (as soon as possible).
Welcome!
