The new European Commission aims to modernize EU competition law across the board, notably merger review, enforcement (covering antitrust, the Digital Markets and Foreign Subsidies Acts), as well as state aid. These changes occur in a broader context including the need to address falling European productivity and threats of geo-political instability. The panelists will discuss the competition policy mandate of Executive Vice-President-designate Teresa Ribera Rodríguez set out by European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen. In particular, the panel will explore how the Commission could address key competition policy challenges facing Europe at home and abroad, and how to best address them.
OUR PANELISTS
Dr. Thorsten Käseberg, a lawyer and economist, has been serving as a civil servant since 2007 in different functions in the area of economic policy. He currently heads the unit "Competition and Consumer Policy" in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. One focus of his work is the digital transformation and its potential and challenges for regulation. He is also an official of the European Commission (on leave), where he served in the Directorate-General for Competition (2009-2011). Dr. Käseberg has lectured at Humboldt University Berlin and published in particular on economic and regulatory issues, including the book Intellectual Property, Antitrust and Cumulative Innovation in the EU and the US (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2012). He was educated at the University of Bonn, Humboldt University Berlin, the London School of Economics and New York University.
Marceline Tournier is Global Head of Antitrust & Associate General Counsel EMENA at Nestlé. Prior to joining Nestlé S.A. in 2008, Marceline worked as a UK and EU antitrust lawyer in the City of London at Clifford Chance (1999 to 2006) and Hogan & Hartson (2006 to 2008). Marceline has extensive competition law experience covering antitrust investigations, sector inquiries, merger control and joint venture cases and utilities regulation in Europe and throughout the world. Marceline’s sector expertise includes consumer goods, financial services, private equity, energy, water and transport. Marceline holds a B.A. (cum laude) from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and is qualified as an English solicitor.
Georg Boettcher is Chief Counsel Competition at Siemens. In this function he is responsible for all antitrust matters worldwide covering merger control, advice on competition law issues and a state-of-the-art antitrust compliance program. Georg joined Siemens in 2005 as an antitrust lawyer and since then held various positions within the Siemens Legal department; most recently, from 2015-2018, he was the General Counsel for Latin America and was based in Bogota, Colombia. Before joining Siemens, Georg worked as an attorney in private practice for several years. He studied law at the universities of Hamburg, Bilbao and Munich and received his PhD in Competition Law from the Max-Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law in Munich.
Mathew Heim is Senior Fellow, GW Competition & Innovation Lab, George Washington University focusing on international competition policy and governance. He is also Senior Adviser to BIAC’s Competition Committee to the OECD and ICN Non-Governmental Adviser to the UK Competition and Market’s Authority. Mathew also advises on the politics of law, notably international competition policy. Previously, Mathew spent nearly 15 years in-house as Vice President of Government Affairs at Qualcomm in Europe and Head of International Competition Policy at Amazon, Seattle. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant, advising on political or policy implications created by legal or regulatory proceedings in Europe, mainly merger and antitrust investigations. Mathew was called to the Bar in the UK, and has degrees in Medieval History from Bristol University and in European Studies (with Distinction) from Exeter University in the UK.
