According to the planned programme of the conference held on 11 November, 2015, the series of section meetings of the event will be opened with a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Egon Dienes-Oehm, Constitutional Court judge whereby the current president, the former president and vice-president of the GVH will exchange views on the past, present and future of the GVH.
The participants of Section II, entitled ‘Competition Policy in Transition Economies – Regional Approach’ will review that during the transition from the centrally planned economy to the market economy what special tasks occurred when elaborating competition law, setting up competition authorities and developing the application of law. Among the panellists there will be Ms. Anna Fornalczyk, founding President of Poland’s competition authority (UOKiK), Mr. Andreas Mundt, President of the German competition authority (Bundeskartellamt), Mr. Andrej Tsyganov, Vice-President of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation and Mr. András Tóth, Vice-President of the GVH and Chairman of the GVH’s Competition Council.
The 25 years of consumer protection activity will be the focus of Section III. Jason Freeman, Director of Consumer Law of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) of the United Kingdom will moderate the panel discussion; Krisztina Grimm, Head of Consumer Protection Section of the GVH, Massimiliano Puglia, référendaire of the Court of Justice of the European Union and Antonio Mancini, Director of Credit Directorate of the Italian Competition Authority will be the panellists. They will give presentations on consumer protection concepts and the development of regulation, synergy experienced by authorities either operating as competition authority or fulfilling consumer protection duties; moreover, summaries will be provided about the experiences of the application of the provisions implementing the UCP Directive, particularly the infringements affecting children and adolescents.
The purpose of the section discussion entitled the Exchange of Information and Information Databases - Competition Concerns is to provide an overview of the competition law instruments and the related legal practice concerning ex-post data gathering and sharing, which have become increasingly common in certain industries for some specialised service providers and market participants.
With the moderation of Tihamér Tóth, Counsel of Réczicza White & Case LLP Law Firm, Anna Miks, member of the GVH’s Competition Council, Kris Dekeyser, Director of the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition, Bitten Thorgaard Sørensen, Vice-Director-General of the Danish competition authority (Konkurrence- og Forbrugerstyrelsen) and Chris Fonteijn, Chairman of the Board of the Netherlands’ Authority for Consumers and Markets will review the above mentioned possibilities.
At the end of the event Mr. Pál Csiszár, Director of DG Competition of the European Commission will give closing remarks.