BALTIC COMPETITION CONFERENCE 2021: CHALLENGES OF DIGITALISATION, DAMAGE CLAIMS AND COMPETITION IMPACT ASSESSMENT

The Lithuanian Competition Council is organising a traditional Baltic competition conference, which will take place on 18 May 2021, and invites competition law practitioners, businesses, public sector and academic community for a discussion on the role of small competition authorities in investigating digital markets, developments and legislative initiatives in the field of private competition law enforcement, as well as competition impact assessment.

As more and more companies are moving their businesses online, problems related to digital markets are becoming more and more relevant. Digital markets offer more opportunities for offenders to restrict competition and require greater expertise and technological preparation from competition authorities to detect alleged competition infringements. What is the role of small competition authorities in enforcing competition rules and conducting investigations in the age of digitalisation? Are there any alternative ways to solve the arising competition concerns in the rapidly changing markets?

Provisions of the EU Damages Directive were transposed into the Lithuanian law in 2017, however, private competition enforcement is still rather rare in practice. What measures could foster private damage actions and encourage individuals to defend their rights when seeking full compensation for damages caused by competition law infringements? What legislative initiatives have been proposed in this area recently? What could be the way forward?

In Lithuania the duty to conduct assessment of impact that draft legal acts might have on competition has been in force since 2019, but competition assessment conducted by public authorities is still rare, both in cases of minor regulatory changes and significant economic projects. How to ensure that competition impact assessment mechanism would be efficient and reach the intended goals?

These and other questions will be discussed during the event by the following keynote speakers:

Šarūnas Keserauskas, Chairman, Lithuanian competition authority;

Philip Marsden, Deputy Chair, Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee;

Niklas Brueggemann, Policy Officer at DG COMP, European Commission;

Dina Lurje, Deputy Chairwoman, Lithuanian competition authority;

Antonio Capobianco, Acting Head of Competition Division, OECD;

Pavel Jacunskij, Head of Competition Policy Group, Lithuanian competition authority.

The event is free of charge, but the number of participants is limited. Registration is open until 14 May.

Conference agenda (660.7 KB ).