The Competition Law Hub

Digital Merger Control at the 7th Arab Competition Forum

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:54:18 +0000

On 29 October 2026, Vicky Robertson was invited to contribute to the panel on digital merger control at the 7th Arab Competition Forum, hosted in Dubai by the OECD, UNCTAD, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and the COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission. Joining online from WU Vienna, Vicky discussed theories of harm encountered in digital mergers, including the importance of local digital platforms, cooperation among competition authorities, and emerging ecosystem theories of harm. The panel was moderated by Saïd Kechida (OECD), with fellow speakers contributing perspectives from COMESA (Willard Mwemba), Saudia Arabia (Talal Al Hogail), Jordan (Jamil Zaid) and the European Commission (Christian Grobecker).

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Media Pluralism and Competition Law at ERA

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 09:58:51 +0000

At the Academy of European Law (ERA) in Trier, Vicky Robertson discussed media pluralism, democracy and competition law at ERA’s annual conference on EU competition law. In her talk, she focused on the impact of digital media on media pluralism and whether competition law has the tools to address this. Fellow speakers at the two-day conference included keynote speaker Linsey McCallum, Massimiliano Kadar, Antonio Capobianco, Martín Martínez Navarro, Inga Reine, Stephan Simon, Valérie Noël and many others. Gabriella Muscolo chaired Vicky’s panel.

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Democratic Antitrust at Stellenbosch

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 09:57:00 +0000

At an instalment of the webinar of the Centre for Competition Law and Economics (CCLE) of the University of Stellenbosch, which took place on 14 October 2026, Vicky Robertson discussed her forthcoming book on Democratic Antitrust for Digital Markets.

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Update on Dawn Raids and RFIs

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 09:47:40 +0000

At an event co-hosted by The Competition Law Hub, WU Vienna and the Women in Competition Law Network Austria (WCNA), the Hub’s Franziska Guggi discussed some of her findings on data-driven competition enforcement alongside practitioner Evelin Hlina (Schönherr) and enforcer Beatrix Krauskopf (Austrian Federal Competition Authority). Franziska focused on what the recent Michelin case reveals about data-driven enforcement at the European Commission, and how the General Court viewed the use of data-driven tools upon review. Vicky Robertson moderated the panel.

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The Austrian Brau Union Case Unsettles Heineken

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:55:48 +0000

In a recent interview with Orla McDonald from the Dutch Het Financieele Dagblad, Vicky Robertson discussed the developing case law of the Austrian Supreme Court on antitrust fines. She emphasised that the Court has issued ever stricter fining decisions over the past years against the background of the need for deterrence. This could also impact Heineken as the mother company of Brau Union, a company that is under scrutiny for abuse of dominance in an ongoing Austrian case.

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Merger Control at the European Parliament

ComplawAdmin — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:53:57 +0000

At an event that took place at the European Parliament on 29 September 2026, Vicky Robertson discussed ways in which the forthcoming Merger Guidelines by the European Commission could better take non-price parameters of competition into account, particularly as they relate to media plurality and digital platforms. Further speakers on the panel, which was moderated by Justine Haekens, were Filippo Lancieri and Ioannis Lianos. Their key takeaways:

Include all theories of harm based on which mergers may be blocked, and provide possible evidence in a separate section;
ensure that all sources of wisdom that can contribute to understanding a merger can be relied upon, don’t limit yourself to one strand of economics;
provide concrete examples of how to make non-price parameters of competition actionable in merger assessments; and
close gaps in assessing digital mergers with an impact on media pluralism, ensure coherence with the European Media Freedom Act.

A further panel asked what evidence there is for merger efficiencies, and what impact the more economic approach had (and continues to have) on EU merger control. Brought together by moderator James Kanter were panellists Daniele Calisti, Kati Cseres and Annika Stöhr.

The event was hosted by MEP Rasmus Andresen, Rebalance Now and the Open Markets Institute.

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Vienna Competition Law Days 2026

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 07:57:25 +0000

On 24 and 25 September 2026, The Competition Law Hub once again hosts the Vienna Competition Law Days at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Bringing together leading academics, competition enforcers and practitioners, the workshop aims to foster discussions on current issues in competition law and economics. In addition to a book talk on democratic antitrust, four panels discuss the state of play in the DMA, FDI & merger control, innovation, and antitrust sanctions. You can find the programme as follows:

VCLD 2026_Programme Download

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ASCOLA 2026

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:10:46 +0000

At the annual conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA), which took place in London from 1 to 3 July 2026, The Competition Law Hub was represented by Franziska Guggi, Klaudia Majcher and Vicky Robertson. Franziska presented a chapter of her PhD in computational antitrust – stay tuned! Klaudia presented her working paper on epistemic welfare in competition law. Vicky presented a chapter of her forthcoming book, dealing with multi-stakeholder engagement in digital competition law. She also chaired a session on antitrust foundations, and discussed Richard Bunworth’s paper on the impact of Irish merger control.

ASCOLA 2026 was also a great opportunity to catch up with former visiting fellows of The Hub, including Belle Beems, Thomas Cheng, Helena Drewes, Eva Fischer and Wendy Ng.

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AI & Competition

ComplawAdmin — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 08:07:43 +0000

On 30 June 2026, Vicky Robertson participated in a Roundtable on AI and Competition, hosted by Ariel Ezrachi at Pembroke College, Oxford. It was an excellent opportunity to push the current boundaries for engagement with the many ongoing developments in AI and ecosystem envelopment. In particular, it was highlighted how various forms of AI-driven misinformation need to be countered, including through competition law. Remedies, it was emphasised, need to be carefully drafted and addressed in order to be successful – and should not only come as an afterthought.

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Computational Antitrust in Action?

ComplawAdmin — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 07:22:48 +0000

At The Hub’s Jour fixe, Fanni Tuominen (Graz University of Technology) presented her research into the use of data-driven tools in the enforcement of EU competition law by the European Commission, the General Court and the Court of Justice. She created an interconnected dataset that allows for navigating instances in which the authority and the courts relied on keywords associated with computational antitrust, and also looked into ways in which topic modelling could be applied to legal documents. She carried out her interdisciplinary research with Jürgen Fleiß, Vicky Robertson and Dominik Kowald.

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