The 19th ASCOLA Annual Conference will take place from 4-6 July 2024 in Würzburg, Germany, upon invitation by Professor Florian Bien and Dr Björn-Christian Becker from the University of Würzburg. Würzburg’s University was founded in 1402. The city has a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage palace, the Residence, and is famous for its wine. Würzburg is about one hour by train from Frankfurt International Airport. Florian Bien invited the competition law scholars from around the world to Würzburg at the Athens Conference 2023 – and asked them, not only to prepare high quality papers on antitrust, but also practice their musical skills: There wil be the first ASCOLA Concert! Watch this space for more information.
The ASCOLA Annual Conference 2023 in Athens ended on 3 July 2023 after four intense days of discussions on competition law. This was the largest ASCOLA conference ever with 38 panels, several plenary sessions and about 150 participants from all over the world. The conference was organised by Professors Alexandra Mikroulea and Manos Mastromanolis from the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens together with the Hellenic Competition Commission under the leadership of Professor Ioannis Lianos. The organisers and their teams deserve the thanks of the ASCOLA community for their extraordinary efforts and the great event at the Greek capital.
The highlight of the conference were of course the numerous panels with presentations of scholarly work – the papers had been chosen in a peer review process. The Best Junior Paper Award 2023 was won by Elias Deutscher (University of East Anglia) & Stavros Makris (University of Glasgow) for their paper “Merger Control and Sustainability”. The keynote speech was given by Professor Herbert Hovenkamp (University of Pennsylvania) who is said to be the most cited antitrust professor in the world. He spoke on “Markets and Gatekeepers”. In the “Economist Debate”, Olivier Guersent (Director General for Competition, EU), Tomasso Valletti (Imperial College London, former Chief Economist of EU DG Competition) and Chrysovalantou Milliou (Hellenic Competition Commission) discussed economic challenges for competition. In a TED Talk Session, hosted by Rupprecht Podszun (University of Düsseldorf) younger scholars presented their research in gripping 90-seconds-talks. The inspiring final session looked into the production of knowledge and the engagement of academics with enforcers and policy-makers. Social events included the 20th birthday party of ASCOLA in the Benaki Museum, a trip to the scenic Sounion and to the Acropolis Museum.
ASCOLA also held elections. After seven years in office Michal Gal (University of Haifa) stepped down as President. The Assembly thanked her with standing ovations for her excellent work over the years. Her successor is Rupprecht Podszun (University of Düsseldorf). Peter Picht (Zurich, for finances), Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong), Magali Eben (Glasgow), Giorgio Monti (Tilburg) and Wendy Ng (Melbourne) will serve as Vice Presidents. New members were also elected to the larger board of ASCOLA.
The next ASCOLA conference will be held in Würzburg, Germany, upon invitation by Professor Florian Bien and Dr Björn-Christian Becker on 4-6 July 2024.
The photo gallery holds some impressions from the 2023 conference (for more see here).
Łukasz Grzejdziak and Mario Cabral at the Benaki Museum
The ASCOLA members in front of the Old Parliament in Athens
Scholars from Japan and Korea
Jens-Uwe Franck intervenes
The new members of the ASCOLA executive committee with Rupprecht Podszun, Thomas Cheng, Magali Eben, Giorgio Monti, Wendy Ng and Peter Picht
Elettra Bietti (NYU) during the TED talk
French delegation
Panel with Niccolo Galli, Orcan Ok and Peter Picht
Fabiana Di Porto and Michal Gal with the winners of the Best Junior Paper Award 2023, Elias Deutscher & Stavros Makris
20 years of ASCOLA
Organiser Alexandra Mikroulea, keynote speaker Herbert Hovenkamp, President Michal Gal, Co-organiser and head of the Hellenic Competition Commission Ioannis Lianos
The General Assembly of ASCOLA has elected a new board and a new executive committee in its meeting in Athens on 30 June 2023. After seven years in office, professor Michal Gal of Haifa University stepped down as president. Rupprecht Podszun of the University of Düsseldorf who had been the Vice President since 2019 was elected as her successor. He will run ASCOLA with a team: Vice Presidents are Peter Picht (Zurich, VP for finances), Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong), Magali Eben (Glasgow), Giorgio Monti (Tilburg) and Wendy Ng (Melbourne).
The Assembly thanked Michal Gal for her hard work and her dedication to ASCOLA. During her presidency – professor Gal was elected in Leiden in 2016 – membership of ASCOLA nearly tripled to now 630 members. Michal Gal led ASCOLA with passion. Members gave her standing ovations.
With the new Executive Committee ASCOLA wishes to broaden its reach internationally and consolidate the organisation. Professor Podszun promised that the new team will try to keep the standards of excellence in research but also preserve the community feeling that is so characteristic of the ASCOLA group.
The Assembly also elected a new Board, the larger body that carries the responsibility. The current members were re-elected and new members added that represent the wider geographic range: Zeynep Ayata (Turkey), Mor Bakhoum (Senegal), Magali Eben (UK), Juan David Gutierrez (Colombia), Vikas Kathuria (India), Wendy Ng (Australia), Jasminka Pecotic Kaufman (Croatia) and Masako Wakui (Japan) were elected to the Board. Also, it was decided that the respective organiser of the conference is co-opted as a member of the board.
Three ASCOLA members were appointed Directors for special projects: Fabiana Di Porto (Director for Best Junior Paper Award), Viktoria Robertson (Director for Scholarships) and Jurgita Malinauskaite (Director for Mentoring).
With the new governance structure and people ASCOLA looks well-equipped to manage the next steps in its new decade: In Athens, members celebrated 20 years of ASCOLA. The organisation was founded in Munich in 2003. Former President Paul Nihoul (now a judge at the European Court) shared thoughts in a speech on the occasion.
Michal Gal, ASCOLA President 2016-2023, giving her closing remarks at the Athens #ASCOLA2023 conference.The new ASCOLA Executive Committee: Rupprecht Podszun, Thomas Cheng, Magali Eben, Giorgio Monti, Wendy Ng, Peter Picht.
Michal Gal (President 2016-2023) and Rupprecht Podszun (President as of 2023), pictured here at the seaside during the ASCOLA dinner at Sounion, Greece.Former ASCOLA President Paul Nihoul shared thoughts on 20 years of ASCOLA.
At the ASCOLA Conference 2023 in Athens, Greece, Elias Deutscher (University of East Anglia) and Stavros Makris (University of Glasgow) won the Best Junior Paper Award for their joint paper “Merger Control and Sustainability”. The jury consisted of Fabiana Di Porto (Salento, chair), Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong) and David Gerber (Chicago-Kent). The picture shows Fabiana Di Porto, Elias Deutscher, Stavros Makris and ASCOLA president Michal Gal at the Awards Ceremony.
The organising team of #ASCOLA2023, our Annual Conference on competition law and policy, has set up a conference website. You can register now for participating in this very special competition law event!
The conference will be held in Athens, Greece, from 29 June 2023 to 1 July 2023. We thank the local organisers, professors Ioannis Lianos and Alexandra Mikroulea for their great preparatory work! The conference is open for all ASCOLA Members. You can become a member if you are eligible according to our criteria – in particular we only accept antitrust scholars. For more information please consult our Join Ascola page!
The Call for Papers for the Annual Conference 2023 can be found here. Time for submission has elapsed.
Mark your calendars: The 18th ASCOLA Conference will take place in Athens, Greece, from 29 June to 1 July 2023. ASCOLA has now published the Call for Papers which you can find here: ASCOLA 2023 Call for Papers.
Deadline for proposals is 27 January 2023. We are looking forward to many awesome submissions – and to a great conference, to be organised by ASCOLA with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens!
ASCOLA members Kay Jebelli and Friso Bostoen have a podcast on competition matters that is definitely worth listening to: “Monopoly Attack”, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your daily dose. A good start could be the report on the ASCOLA Conference 2022 in Porto that Kay & Friso put together. You can find Monopoly Attack for instance here or here.
In the D’Kart blog, one of the more entertaining blogs on competition law & policy, our Vice President Rupprecht Podszun wrote his review of the Conference – available (including photos) here.
On daytime, Philip Marsden is a serious competition law expert, working at the Collège d’Europe in Bruges. But at nighttime, he can turn into a most entertaining rap star, the uncrowned king of the competition concert hall. At the 17th ASCOLA Conference in Porto, he made an appearance as Capt. Felipe during an evening boat trip on the Douro River. He slammed the community in a song based on Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”. We document the text here – parental warning: Explicit lyrics. Enjoy the new hit: “Antitrust Paradise”!
Francesco Ducci is the winner of the 2022 Best Junior Paper Award of ASCOLA, the Academic Society for Competition Law. Francesco is a scholar at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. The jury decided that his paper on “Randomized Access to Digital Bottlenecks” stands out. The jury wrote:
“The piece is highly insightful, bringing new analytical perspectives to a problem that has been relatively little noticed. By identifying the shareability potential of digital rankings and their non-rivalrous nature, the paper suggests using randomized rotation in the design of remedies. (…) All in all, it is a piece of creative and insightful scholarship into an area that deserves to be illuminated, and it brings to bear a well-developed analytical framework that represents first-class scholarship.”
Members of the jury were law professors Fabiana Di Porto (Salento), Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong) and David Gerber (Chicago-Kent). The picture shows Francesco Ducci with Fabiana Di Porto as speaker for the jury on a boat in Porto where the winner was announced during the 2022 Annual Conference.
We are very proud to announce the keynote speaker of this year’s conference: Ascola will host Chief Judge Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Wood is a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. She will speak on “Divergent Paths for Global Competition Law: Top Down or Bottom Up?” The talk will be given during the Ascola Annual Conference 2022 in Porto on Friday, 1 July 2022, at 2 pm local time.
All information on the conference can be found on the conference website:
