Welcome to the Competition Forum!

We have created this new platform to contribute to the debate on the evolution of competition law. Of course, websites, blogs, online reviews and magazines, and more generally the media dedicated to competition law are already numerous on the web. But, it seems to us that there is still some room to propose innovative content that stands out from the other things you will find on the web.

First of all, our platform is mainly open to academics. Of course, competition law practitioners (lawyers, companies, representatives of competition authorities) will be welcome on our platform. But it seems to us that they already have many other places to express their views. As for us, we would like to shed more light on the reflections of academics, and trust us to publish contributions that are perfectly independent of each other’s political or economic interests. Our main concern is to offer you an independent point of view about competition issues, without bias. It goes without saying that no private company finances any of our activities.

On the Competition Forum, you will find innovative content that gives an important place to the reflections of academics: for example, interviews with professors on their latest research or on a reform that has just been adopted, academic analyses of decisions by a competition authority or a court, an editorial on a reform that has been proposed. The formats will be various: long articles, which deal with a topic in depth, but also short articles that develop just one idea. What matters, for us, is to give the reader a point of view, an opinion. Competition authorities and courts already play an important role in communicating their activities. There are dozens of websites that will provide you with press releases. On this platform, we do not want to inform you, but invite you to think with us.

 And then, there is another reason to come often to meet us in this new Competition Forum: the team behind this forum is composed of French academics. Well, that’s not a good reason in itself… But it is clear that the French are often rather poorly represented in academic discussions. French law and the positions taken by French authorities are sometimes not well known – not everyone speaks – alas! – the language of Molière. So, in this forum, readers will find presentations, discussions, and sometimes criticism of what is happening in France in the field of competition law. In English language! There is a lot going on in France. The Autorité de la concurrence is one of the most dynamic in Europe, our Supreme Courts (Cour de cassation, Conseil d’Etat) have case law that deserves to be known by non-French speaking readers.

In partnership with ASCOLA, the team behind this new platform is based in Aix-en-Provence, most of us come from the Centre de droit économique of Aix-Marseille Université. But, once again, we welcome contributions from wherever they come from. The bottom line is that they will help us move forward in our reflection on the tremendous challenges that lie ahead of us.

Frédéric Marty is a CNRS senior research fellow. He is also affiliate researcher of the French Economic Observatory (OFCE – Sciences Po. Paris), Researcher at the CIRANO (Montréal), and member of the EPPP Research Group of the Sorbonne Graduate Business School (IAE Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne). He graduated in economics and management from the Ecole Normale Supérieure of Paris-Saclay and Ph.D. in economics. Since 2003 he has been a member of the Group of Research in Law, Economics and Management (GREDEG) a join research unit of the CNRS and of the Université Côte d’Azur. His publications mainly deal with competition law and economics. His research are mainly focused on unilateral abuses of dominance and the history of competitions policies.

Walid Chaiehloudj is Associate Professor at the University Grenoble Alpes and currently in delegation at the University of New-Caledonia. He holds a PhD in competition law from Aix-Marseille University. His thesis focuses on pay-for-delay agreements and has been awarded the 2018 Concurrences Best PhD Award and the Louis Jean Bernat, Prize granded by Aix-Marseille University rewarding the best doctoral schooling. He is a member of the College of the Competition Authority of the New-Caledonia since August 31st, 2020.

Lylian Denis started a PhD thesis at Aix-Marseille University in 2021. After obtaining a private law degree in Aix-en-Provence, he pursued his studies at the same university in a Master degree specialised in business law, and ended with a research Master in competition and distribution law. Lylian teaches competition law. His thesis is about “Technological tools in support of competition law” under the supervision of Professor David Bosco. He joined the Competition forum team when he started his thesis and after various publications on the website during his last year as a student.

Maya-Salomé Garnier started a PhD thesis at Aix-Marseille University in 2019. After a law degree obtained at the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, she pursued her studies in Aix-en-Provence by doing a Research Master’s Degree specialized in competition and distribution law. She was part of the organization team of the Ascola 2019 conference held in Aix-en-Provence. Maya currently teaches competition law and contract law. Her thesis project, under the supervision of Professor David Bosco, aims at assessing the role of intent in EU and French antitrust law. She handled the creation of the Competition Forum website and administrates it.

Vincent Giovannini studied at the Faculty of Law of Aix-Marseille. Graduated from the Research Master’s degree in Economic Law, in 2017 Vincent started a PhD thesis on the subject “Big Data and Competition Law” under the supervision of Professor David Bosco. This research work aims to take stock of the current situation and make proposals concerning the legal issues relating to the interaction between big data and competition law. In his dissertation, Vincent is also closely interested in the rules relating to the protection of personal and non-personal data, intellectual property law, consumer law, regulatory law, the objectives of competition law and policy, and industrial policy. Vincent is also a teaching fellow at the Faculty of Law of Aix-Marseille. He teaches contract law, liability law, commercial law and corporate law.

Rafik Rabia is a lawyer at the Paris and Algiers Bars. He practices mainly in the field of Corporate / Mergers & Acquisitions and competition law. He is also a PhD student at the University of Aix-Marseille and is preparing a thesis, under the supervision of Professor David Bosco, on the notion of harm in European merger control. This work focuses on two aspects of the substantive assessment of merger control. It deals, on the one hand, with the impact of the change in the assessment test following the 2004 reform, and on the other hand, with the change in the method of control through the advent of the new economic approach in European competition law. Rafik Rabia regularly acts as an expert for certain competition authorities, in particular in the field of compliance and ex-ante control.