Ireland in Europe:
Current Developments in Merger Assessment
A conference for legal practitioners,
in-house lawyers, public servants, economic advisors and business people
The Irish Centre for European Law (ICEL)
Invites you to a conference
on
Thursday, 16 June 2005
at
The Hilton Dublin Hotel
Charlemont Place
Dublin 2
This conference will explore the significance of: Council Regulation 139/2004; the issues raised by the recent Airtours and Tetra Laval line of case-law; the implications of the increasing merger activity under Part III of the Competition Act 2002 and the developing case-law of the Competition Authority, including the recent Grafton Group plc/Heiton Group determination, in merger control. It will therefore interest all concerned, affected or practicing in the area of mergers and acquisitions.
Solicitors' CPD Allocation: 4.0 Hours Group Study
PROGRAMME
1.15pm /Registration
1.45 /Welcome & Opening Observations
Noel J. Travers BL, Director ICEL & Law Library
Session I – Measuring the Economic Effects of Mergers
1.50pm /General Introduction to Conference & Overview of Session I
Chair: Noel J. Travers BL, Director ICEL & Law Library
2.00pm / The Use of Real Evidence in Merger CasesMr Edward Henneberry, Member of Competition Authority
2.25pm / Measuring Dominance in EU Merger Control: A Perspective from the Commission as to the Appropriate Level of Regulatory Control
Dr Claes Bengtsson, DG Comp, European Commission
3.50pm / Measuring Market Power in Irish Merger Control: The Economics Underlying the Assessment of Mergers
Mr Pat Massey, Economist and Director of Compecon
3.15pm / Question and Answer/Discussion Session
3.40pm / REFRESHMENT BREAK
Session II – Standard of Review, Media Mergers and the Use of Customer Surveys
4.10pm / Introduction to Conference Session II
Chair: Mr Brian Hartnett BL, Partner, Squire Sanders & Dempsey, Brussels
4.20pm /
The Standard of Review in Merger Cases particularly under the Competition Act 2002
Ms Emily Gibson BL, Law Library4.45pm / The Regulation of Media Mergers in Ireland
Ms Helen Kelly Solr, Partner Matheson Ormsby Prentice Solicitors
5.10pm / The Use of Customer Surveys in Merger Simulation and Analysis
Mr Alan McCarthy Solr, Partner A&L Goodbody Solicitors
5.35pm / Question and Answers/Discussion Session
6.00pm / Close of Conference
CHAIR & SPEAKER PROFILES
Dr Claes Bengtsson has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Copenhagen and is one of the members of the newly established team of economists that is led by DE Competition’s chief economist Lars-Hendrik Röller. His main areas of focus are mergers and antitrust. Prior to joining the team he has worked since 2002 as a member of the Merger Task Force. In that period he worked on a number of merger cases and was part of the team that wrote the Horizontal Merger Guidelines. Before joining the Commission Claes worked for two years for the Danish Ministry of Finance. Among other things he was involved in designing the Danish auction for UMTS licenses.
Ms Emily Gibson BL is a practising barrister specialising in competition law. Emily is a member of the Irish and New York bars. She formerly practised in Brussels, where she was an associate with Lovells specialising in Articles 81EC and 82 EC, merger control and state aid.
Mr Brian N. Hartnett BL is a member of the Irish and English Bars. Since entering private practice in 1983, Brian has specialised in the EU competition and trade law. He practices in Brussels in partnership with Squire Sanders. Brian represents US and European companies both as plaintiffs and defendants before the Commission and the Court of Justice. Brian has extensive experience in the telecommunications, petrochemicals, IT and media and retail sectors and has been involved in some of the most significant cartel and merger cases within the EU over the past 16 years. His clients include chemical manufacturers, global telecommunications providers, financial institutions and high technology systems suppliers. Recently he has served as counsel in several significant mergers involving the telecommunications, chemicals manufacturing and global market research industries. In addition, in the past 12 months, Brian has provided representation in a graphite electrodes cartel investigation, a State Aid investigation in the Czech Republic and a Commission investigation alleging an abuse of Article 82. He regularly advises on some of Europe’s most significant mergers, including, in the past, Union Carbide/Dow Chemicals, Nestlé/Ralston Purina, WorldCom/Sprint, VNU/ACNielsen, Northrop Grumman/Lytton, Deutsche Telekom/Callahan Cable, ACNielsen/TNS (JV). He has written extensively in the field of EU competition law.
Mr Edward Henneberry is a lawyer and has been a Member of The Competition Authority and Director of its Mergers Division since 15th September 2003. In this position, Ted represents the Authority on the EC's Advisory Committee on Concentrations and serves as co-chair of the Mergers Analytical Framework Sub-group of the International Competition Network. Previously Ted was a senior partner in Howrey Simon Arnold & White's Antitrust Practice Group based in Washington D.C. The focus of his practice was private antitrust litigation, mergers and joint ventures, and government investigations. Ted started his career with Howrey in 1975 and became a partner in 1979. Prior to joining Howrey, Ted served as a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice prosecuting cases involving price fixing and monopolies. He has lectured on competition law, among others, at UCD and has published widely on the subject, most recently (in February 2005) a paper for the Competition Committee of the OECD on "Cross-Border Remedies in Merger Review.
Ms Helen Kelly Solr. is a partner and head of the EC, Competition and Regulatory Law Group at MOP. Helen specialises in EC and Irish merger control work and also advises on abuses of a dominant position, cartels, state aid and public procurement law. She also advises on Regulatory issues in a number of sectors.
Mr Pat Massey is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and holds a B.A.(Mod.) and M.Litt. in economics. He is a director Compecon Limited, a consulting firm specialising in the economic analysis of competition, mergers and regulatory issues, which he established in 2001. He was previously a member of the Competition Authority, for ten years including four as the Authority’s Director of Competition Enforcement. He represented the Authority on the OECD Committee on Competition Law and Policy and the EU Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions from 1991 to 2001. Prior to joining the Competition Authority Patrick Massey spent two years with the New Zealand Treasury. He previously worked for DKM Economic Consultants in Dublin. He is the author of New Zealand: Market Liberalisation in a Developed Economy and co-author of Competition Law and Policy in Ireland and Competition and Regulation in Ireland: the Law and Economics. He has also written a number of articles on competition policy in particular which have been published in leading Irish and international. He also lectures on the “Economics of Competition and Regulation” at Trinity College, Dublin and at the NUI, Maynooth.
Mr Alan McCarthy Solr is a Partner in the EU and Competition Law Unit of A&L Goodbody and is a member of the firm’s Projects and Construction Unit/Energy Group. He advises both public and private entities on EU and Irish competition and sectoral regulatory law. Alan has represented clients in a number of sectors including banking, insurance, food, oil and beverages before the Irish Competition Authority and the European Commission. He specialises in advice on the competition implications of mergers and joint ventures. He has advised on many of the recent mergers notified to the Irish Competition Authority (including two mergers that have been investigated in Phase 2 of the Irish Competition Authority’s procedures). Alan frequently advises on a range of Irish and EU competition law enforcement measures. He regularly writes and lectures on competition law matters both in Ireland and abroad. Alan is co-author with Dr Vincent Power of the leading Irish text-book “Irish Competition Law: Competition Act 2002”.
Mr Noel J. Travers BL is a practising barrister and Director of the ICEL. Called to the Bar in 1991, he is a former lecturer-in-law (1990-1995) and Associate Dean (1992-1995) of the Faculty of Law, UCD. He was a référendaire (legal secretary) from 1995 to 2000 to Advocate General Nial Fennelly (as he then was) at the Court of Justice and, subsequently, from 2000 to 2003, to Judge Bo Vesterdorf, President of the Court of First Instance. In January 2004, he returned to Ireland, resumed legal practice at the Bar and took up the directorship of the ICEL. He has published widely in various academic journals primarily about EC law. He is a Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law, UCD, and an occasional lecturer in EU law at UCD and at the Law School, TCD.
To reserve your place(s) at:
IRELAND IN EUROPE:
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN MERGER ASSESSMENT
on Thursday, 16 June 2005
please post, phone, fax or e-mail Lesley-Ann Hayden:
The ICEL, House 39, The Law School, TCD, Dublin 2, DX 157
Phone: (01) 608 1845; Fax.: (01) 679 4080; E-mail:
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REGISTRATION & RELATED MATTERS
FORMS OF PAYMENT: Payment of €______may be made by:
q Cheque made payable to “The Irish Centre for European Law”
q Electronic credit transfer to the ICEL account no. 92513195 at the Bank of Ireland, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2: IBAN Code: IE20 BOFI 9014 9092 5131 95; BIC Code: BOFIIE2D.
Please contact Ms Lesley-Ann Hayden, Administrator, ICEL, if you have any queries.
Phone: (01) 608 1845; Fax.: (01) 679 4080; E-mail: