Richard Murgatroyd will speak at the Fourth Annual Competition Commission, Competition Tribunal and Mandela Institute Conference on Competition Law, Economics and Policy. Richard will speak on competition issues surrounding “Import Parity Pricing”, focussing in particular on when such pricing behaviour is likely to constitute an abuse of a dominant position, and where found to constitute an abuse how (or indeed if) that abuse can be remedied. The conference will take place on 2 September 2010 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Andrea Lofaro will speak at the International Merger Control conference organised by GCR to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the EU Merger Regulation (on 28 September 2010, Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Brussels). Andrea will take part in the session on ‘The Judicial Perspective’ and will focus in particular on the use of economic evidence by the Courts.

Adrian Majumdar spoke on ‘Self Assessment under the Vertical Guidelines: Economic Concepts In Practice’ at a recent GCR conference on vertical restraints in Brussels. Adrian also chaired a panel on exclusionary behaviour at the UEA Centre for Competition Policy 6th Annual conference on Vertical Restraints, held in Norwich.

RBB advised DFDS on its proposed acquisition of Norfolk, which was cleared at Phase I by the European Commission subject to conditions. DFDS and Norfolk operate sea transport networks mainly in Western and Northern Europe. Their main activities are Roll-on/Roll-off (”Ro-Ro”), passenger sea transport, sea terminal services and freight forwarding. The Commission’s principal competition concern related to Ro-Ro services between Denmark and the UK, where pre-merger Norfolk was active via a space charter agreement, where it purchased space on DFDS vessels. DFDS proposed to conclude a space charter agreement with a competitor on similar terms to the current one with Norfolk for vessels operating between Denmark and the UK and to transfer customers. The Commission concluded this remedy would remove the competition concerns initially identified in its investigation.

Following a referral by the CAT, the CC has reached a Determination regarding an appeal lodged by Cable and Wireless (C&W) against Ofcom’s 2009 Lease Line Charge Control (LLCC) review - see here.

C&W disputed the one-off increase in starting charges Ofcom permitted BT to apply to 2Mbs local end (an essential element in providing leased lines) charges, and Ofcom’s reliance on BT’s estimates of costs in determining charges for points of handover (PoH). The CC agreed with C&W that the increases in local end charges were inappropriate and that Ofcom had not properly appreciated how BT’s PoH charges would distort competition for leased lines. RBB advised C&W throughout the CC review alongside Baker& McKenzie.

Adrian Majumdar will speak at a GCR conference on the new vertical restraints regime (on 8 June 2010, The Stanhope Hotel, Brussels). His talk will cover self-assessment under the Vertical Guidelines, including the role of a market power assessment in contextualising hard-core restrictions, substantiating efficiencies, buyer power theories of harm and the new buyer-share threshold.

Benoit Durand is one of the speakers at the 5th annual conference organised by IBC on Advanced Review of Competition Economics, to be held in London on 27 May 2010. The conference will feature talks on Article 102, mergers, cartel damages and the interface between economics and competition law, and feature talks from representatives of the Commission and leading practitioners.

For more information see: http://www.informaglobalevents.com/event/economics