The Competition Forum, an new Academic Platform on Competition Law

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.

Editorial Board

The papers published on Competition Forum are peer-reviewed.

If you wish to learn more about our editorial board and to submit us a paper, click here:

Our Team

David BOSCO

David Bosco is Professor of Law at Aix-Marseille University. He is a member of the Centre de droit économique (Center for Economic Law) and he is director of the Master program “Distribution and Competition Law” at the Faculty of Law. He is the author of several books on competition law, including Droit européen de la concurrence, published by Bruylant (with C. Prieto). His latest book Challenges to Assumptions in Competition Law (ed. with Pr. Michal Gal) will be published in 2021 by Edward Elgar.

 

Frédéric MARTY

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.

Marie CARTAPANIS

Marie Cartapanis is associate professor at Aix-Marseille University, teaching Competition law, Intellectual property law, EU Market law, Commercial law and Fundamental human rights. Her thesis, under the supervision of Professor David Bosco, “Innovation and competition law”, published by LGDJ, offers a substantive analysis of the relationship between competition law and innovation. The thesis obtained the Institut Universitaire Varenne Prize in Economic Law and the First Prize of Law and Political Science Faculty of Aix-Marseille University. Marie is currently in charge of the chronicle on unilateral practices in the Concurrences Review. She is interested in the various influences between law and innovation.

Walid CHAIEHLOUDJ

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.

Claire CIZERON

Claire Cizeron started a PhD thesis at Aix-Marseille University in 2023. She obtained a first master’s degree in international private law and a second one in competition and distribution law. This gave her the opportunity to write a master thesis on the application of competition rules in the electronic communications sector. Her thesis, under the supervision of Professor David Bosco, tends to assess the relationship between competition law and regulatory law. She joined the Competition forum team when she started her thesis and after publishing an article on the website as a student.

Lylian DENIS

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

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.

Géraldine GAULARD

Géraldine Gaulard holds a Ph.D. in Competition Law. Her thesis focuses on the EU court’s unlimited jurisdiction in Competition Law and has been awarded the 2019 European Law Thesis Award of the Faculty of Law of the University of Aix-Marseille and has been published by Larcier. Géraldine worked for the national competition authorities in France (Autorité de la concurrence) and Spain (Comision nacional de los mercados y la competencia) as well as the General Court of the European Union before joining the Competition and European Law team of Willkie Farr & Gallagher in Paris for three years. She will be a registered lawyer at the Paris Bar in 2021. She speaks French, English, Spanish and Italian.

Vincent GIOVANNINI

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.

Inès GUITTARD

Inès Guittard started a PhD thesis at Aix Marseille University in 2021. She obtained a first Master degree in economic law and a second one in competition and distribution law. Her thesis deals about the gaps in European merger law. It tends to identify and solve the issues created by a global and digital economy, which are challenging merger law. The purpose is to suggest the relevant degree of intervention for merger law in such a moving context. Inès Guittard teached competition law and now teaches tort law. More broadly, she has key interests in competition law, distribution law, business law, contract law and legal theory.

 

 

 

Florian OLBRECHTS

Florian Olbrechts, Graduated from the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-en- Provence with a Master 2 in Economic Law. As part of this master’s degree, an essay on the uberization of the economy was produced and prompted him to pursue this interest through the completion of a thesis under the supervision of Professor David Bosco. This same thesis, which is currently in progress, deals with the question and the challenges brought by “online platforms”, also commonly known as digital platforms. Although it’s easy to envisage the problems that such a subject can bring through a business law perspective, it’smuch more difficult to come up with answers. So that’s what most of his work is about. Finally, he tries to clarify the contours of an economic and legal phenomenon that is still sometimes unclear or even misunderstood.

 

Rafik RABIA

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.

The Competition Forum Crew

The students of the Master’s Degree specialized in competition and distribution law of Aix-en-Provence are associated to the Competition Forum project. They will publish resumes of French decisions and news regarding competition law, with the aim of providing access to these French insights to an anglo-saxon public.