IIC UK CHAPTER ONLINE SEMINAR: Competition in Digital Markets
Chapter event, Virtual Event
Read this quarter’s Intermedia here
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the issue of competition and regulation in digital markets was a high priority on the agendas of governments, regulatory authorities and companies. The impact of the pandemic has brought into sharp relief the importance of communications networks and digital platforms for the functioning of the economy. The large-scale shift to remote working that has happened in the space of a few weeks in many countries around the world would not have been possible only a few years ago. It has brought into stark relief, the role that communications and digital markets play in modern economies and how they have evolved from being complementary to traditional ways of living and doing business to being absolutely central.
However, this transformation in the way that we live and work has also highlighted our dependence on digital markets. It demonstrates the importance of competition in digital markets to provide investment in technology and infrastructure, the ability to respond to sudden shifts in customer demand and affordability. It also highlights the potential risk of over-reliance on individual companies and networks.
This on-line seminar, hosted by Mark Williams, BRG, provided the opportunity for an interactive discussion between panellists followed by Q&A from the audience. There were speakers from Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) and Ofcom.
Date: 29 April 2020
Time: 1630 BST | 1730 CEST
2330 hrs HKT/SGT | 1130 EDT
Approx. 1.5 hours
Registration for this event is now open.
We very much welcome questions from the audience after the panel have finished speaking, but due to the expected number of participants these are limited to a maximum of two per delegate and must be submitted in advance by email to Joanne Grimshaw. Please send questions by 10.00am BST Wednesday 29 April.
This on-line seminar, provided the opportunity for an interactive discussion between panellists followed by Q&A from the audience. The full session can be seen here
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Summary report of the webinar
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Partner, Communications Chambers
Simeon Thornton is a Director at the Competition and Markets Authority, where he is leading the current market study into online platforms and digital advertising, the interim report of which was published in December 2019. He was previously chief economist and director of analysis at the Department for Energy and Climate Change, where he led a team of over 100 economists, statisticians, social and operational researchers. In previous roles he was responsible for climate change economic analysis at Defra, led market studies at the OFT and was a senior consultant at the economics consultancy NERA, specialising in energy market regulation and restructuring.
Bio coming soon …….
Tommaso Valletti is Professor of Economics at Imperial College London, and also Professor of Economics at the University of Rome. He is currently the Head of the Department of Economics & Public Policy at Imperial College Business School.
He also is a Non-Executive Director to the board of the Financial Conduct Authority and Director of the CEPR Research and Policy Network on Competition Policy.
Professor Valletti was the Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission (Directorate General for Competition) between 2016 and 2019, when he led the economic analysis on many large mergers (e.g. Deutsche Börse/London Stock Exchange, Dow/DuPont, Bayer/Monsanto, Microsoft/LinkedIn, Siemens/Alstom), state aid, and antitrust cases (e.g. Google Shopping, Google Android, Google AdSense, Qualcomm exclusivity, Qualcomm predation, Mastercard and VISA).
Professor Valletti has a magna cum laude degree in engineering and a flute diploma from Turin, and holds a MSc and a PhD in economics from the London School of Economics. He has published in the fields of industrial economics, regulation, and competition economics, for a full list see http://ideas.repec.org/f/pva219.html.
Mark Williams is a Practice Manager in the Digital Development Global Practice of the World Bank. His responsibilities include Global Knowledge and Expertise and the East Asia and Pacific Region. He is an economist with over 20 years of experience in the economics, regulation, and strategy of the digital sector, covering a range of specialist areas including strategy, policy, regulation, cybersecurity, financial analysis corporate restructuring, and litigation.
In addition to the World Bank, Mr Williams has worked in some of the world’s leading economic consulting firms – NERA, Frontier Economics, Deloitte, and Berkeley Research Group (BRG).
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