Introduction of Speakers and their Presentations
CURRENT TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPETITION LAW
Wednesday 14 November 2018
PANEL I: WHAT’S NEW IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY?
Hynek Brom
First Vice-chairman; Czech Competition Authority
Hynek Brom graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, where he has been also teaching at the Department of Public Administration since 2000. From 2000 till 2002 Mr. Brom acted as a head of secretariat of the Governor of Pilsen region. In the years 2000–2009 he was deputy mayor and later mayor of the city circuit Pilsen 4. Since 2006 Mr. Brom was a member of several expert bodies of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, as well as expert institutions dealing with organization and execution of public administration.
Hynek Brom joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in November 2009 as the Director of Section of State Aid and Administration and a month later he was appointed the First Vice-chairman. Since 1 March 2016 he is in charge of the Competition Division.
Alberto Lozano Ferrera
Honduran Competition Authority
Commissioner President of the Honduran Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Competition since September 2013.
He has a Master of Business Administration from the University Center of Marketing and Management, CMI Prague - ESMA Barcelona.
He has been part of the staff of public and private institutions in Honduras such as: the National Telecommunications Company (Hondutel), Democracy and Development Foundation, Secretary of State in the Offices of Culture, Arts and Sports, Secretary of State in the Office of Foreign Affairs , Secretary of State in the Education Office(World Bank program), among others.
Throughout his career he has received multiple courses, seminars, workshops in different areas such as: Human Relations, Public Relations, International Relations and Diplomacy, Economic Relations between Central America and the European Union, Foreign Economic and Cooperation of Taiwan with Latin, Advertising, Languages etc.
He speaks Spanish, mother tongue, then also English, Czech and French.
Boris Gregor
Slovak Competition Authority
Boris Gregor has been a Deputy Chairman of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic since April 2016. Boris Gregor graduated from Faculty of Business Management at University of Economics in Bratislava. He joins the Office from the company Bratislavská vodárenská spoločnosť, a. s., where he worked as Sales Director and he also held the position of Board Deputy Chairman (2011–2015). His previous post was the company BELIMEX a. s. (2000–2011), where he has been holding both the position of Board Chairman and director of the company since 2008.
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Frédéric Jenny
OECD, Competition Committee
Frédéric Jenny, professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School (Paris) holds a Ph.D in Economics from Harvard University (1975), and a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Paris 1977).
He is the Chairman of the OECD Competition Committee (since 1994), Co-Director of the European Center for Law and Economics of ESSEC (since 2010) and Chair of the Commission for Deontology of the French Federation of Insurance Companies (since 2016). He is also an economic and legal consultant.
Previously, he gained a lot of experience by working as a Non-Executive Director of the Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom (2007–2014), Judge on the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation, Economic Commercial and Financial Chamber) from 2004 to August 2012 and Vice Chair of the French Competition Authority (1993–2004).
He was visiting professor at Northwestern University Department of Economics in the United States (1978), Keio University Department of economics in Japan (1984), University of Capetown Business School in South Africa (1991), Haifa University School of Law in Israel (2012), University College London Law School (2005–2012) and was Global Professor of Antitrust in the New York University School of Law’s Hauser Global Law School (2014 and 2017). He was Appointed Senior Fellow in the Online Global Competition and Consumer Law Masters Program, University of Melbourne (January 1 2016 to 31 December 2018).
He is a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals (“Concurrences”, “Journal of Competition Law and Economics”, “World Competition”), member of the advisory board of the “Interdisciplinary Center for Competition Law and Initiative, Middle East Initiative” and Chairman of the scientific board of Consumer Unity Trust of India (CUTS).
Frédéric Jenny was the recipient of the Global Competition Review Lifetime Achievement Award 2016 and he is also distinguished holder of a number of honorary decorations.
PANEL II: PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OF COMPETITION LAW - Selected Issues
Michael Mikulík
Czech Competition Authority
Michael Mikulík graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 2002) and from the University of Cambridge (LL.M., 2008) where his primary focus was on European competition law. Since 2010 he has been working at the Office for the Protection of Competition, initially as Adviser to the Vice-Chairman, then as Head of the Dominance and Vertical Agreements Department and Vice-Chairman of the Section on Protection of Competition. Currently, he is Head of the Appeals Division and a member of appeals committees of the Office. Prior to joining the Office he worked in a private law firm.
Michael Mikulík specializes in the field of competition, administrative and public procurement law. He regularly represents the Office at meetings organized by the advisory bodies of the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission and the Competition Commission of the OECD. He actively participates as a lecturer in training sessions of competition law organized under the patronage of the United Nations (UNCTAD) and Czech Judicial Academy. Michael Mikulík also lectures competition law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague and has contributed as an author and co-author in foreign professional publications dealing with competition law issues.
Jiří Kindl
WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES
Jiri Kindl is a partner in Weil, Gotshal & Manges (Prague). In his legal practice, he specializes primarily in competition and regulatory matters. Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He also studied law at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College) where he obtained Distinction and Clifford Chance Prize for Best Performance in Magister Juris, Winter Williams European Business Regulation Prize and Monckton Chambers Prize in Competition Law. He authored numerous publications on competition law topics both in the Czech Republic and abroad, e.g. he is the co-author of a textbook on Competition Law (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2nd edn, 2012), Commentary to the Czech Competition Act (Prague, C.H. Beck, 3rd edn, 2016), Commentary to the Act on Significant Market Power (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2017) and Commentary to the Act on Damages in the Area of Competition (Prague, C.H. Beck, to be published in 2018). Jiri Kindl also lectures competition law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He is regularly referred to in publications such as Chambers Europe, IFLR Guide – World’s leading competition & antitrust lawyers, Best Lawyers or PLC Which Lawyer – Cross border competition as a leading antitrust lawyer in the Czech Republic.
Anita Lukaschek
Baker McKenzie
Anita Lukaschek joined the Vienna office of Baker & McKenzie in 2015, where she works as special advisor in competition law matters. Anita Lukaschek advises on all aspects of Austrian and EU competition law. She focuses her practice on competition litigation, merger control, restrictive practices and compliance issues.
Anita Lukaschek has a PhD degree in law from University of Vienna, and she obtained the postgraduate diploma in economics for competition law from Kings College London. Before joining Baker & McKenzie Anita Lukaschek worked for the Austrian Competition Authority, handling high profile cartel cases and other cases for more than 12 years. Anita Lukaschek has also been seconded to the European Commission (Directorate General Competition) and the Federal Ministry of Economy (Trade Law Division).
Anita Lukaschek regularly writes articles and other publications on competition law matters. She has been lecturing EU competition law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (where she started her professional career as a university assistant) and other academic institutions. She is fluent in German, English, Italian and French.
Doris Hildebrand
EE&MC
Professor Dr. Dr. Doris Hildebrand is Managing Partner of EE&MC - European Economic & Marketing Consultants GmbH, in Düsseldorf, Brussels and Vienna. Founded by Hildebrand in 1992, EE&MC is a group of competition economists fully dedicated to and specialized in the application of economics in competition law.
Nowadays Hildebrand - as one of the founders of the “more economics based approach” in the 90s - is contributing to the European School of Thought, an economic methodology based on the EU Treaties. Since 2010 Hildebrand is Professor of Economics at the University of Brussels (VUB). Hildebrand’s former academic affiliations include an Associate Professor (1994–1998) at the University of Groningen and an Assistant Professor (1991) at the University of Maastricht.
Hildebrand holds a master’s degree (1987) and Ph.D. (1990) in social and economic sciences from the University of Economics in Vienna. She earned a LL.M. degree (1992) and a state doctorate in law (1998) from the University of Brussels (VUB). Her state doctorate commission was chaired by then EU Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert. In 1989, Hildebrand was a researcher at the Department of Economics at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
Hildebrand’s current specializations are economic analyses and competition assessments of markets in German and EU competition law proceedings. Hildebrand examines on a regular basis for courts as well as for competition and regulatory authorities’ competition issues.
She publishes extensively on competition economics including her most recent book on “The Role of Economic Analysis in the EU Competition Rules - The European School”. This book is in its fourth edition (May 2016) and is categorized by experts as “classical” work in European competition economics that combines theoretical insights with extensive practical experiences in real world cases.
Hildebrand is member of the ICC Commission on Competition and the editorial board of “World Competition”. She speaks regularly on conferences and teaches at various universities (Paris, New York and the UK).
Michal Výtisk
Municipal Court in Prague
Michal Výtisk graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 1999). Since 2000 he has been working in the field of justice. After completing his judicial training in 2003 he was appointed to a judgeship. Between 2006 and 2011 he served as the Vice-President of Prague 1 District Court and between 2011 and 2014 as the President of Prague 10 District Court. In 2014 he was appointed to the position of Vice-President of the Municipal Court in Prague.
Michal Výtisk chairs a specialized judicial panel exercising jurisdiction over industrial property rights as well as the private branch of competition law. He is the lead author of a jointly written Commentary to the Czech Civil Code, and he both lectures at the Czech Judicial Academy and chairs its Examining Board .
Hans-Petter H. Hanson
DG Competition
Hans-Petter H. Hanson is a Policy Officer at DG Competition's Unit A4 – European Competition Network and Private Enforcement. He analyses antitrust policy developments at EU and Member States level and follows up on the implementation of the Damages Directive. This work includes the drafting of guidelines for national courts on how to assess economic evidence in the context of passing-on of overcharges. Before joining the European Commission, Hans-Petter has been nine years at the Norwegian Competition Authority, where he was a member of the Chief Economist Team from 2014–2016. He received a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Bergen (Norway) in 2006 and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Competition Law from Kings College (UK).
PANEL III: COMPETITION IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR – Concept of Undertaking
Hynek Brom
First Vice-chairman; Czech Competition Authority
Hynek Brom graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, where he has been also teaching at the Department of Public Administration since 2000. From 2000 till 2002 Mr. Brom acted as a head of secretariat of the Governor of Pilsen region. In the years 2000–2009 he was deputy mayor and later mayor of the city circuit Pilsen 4. Since 2006 Mr. Brom was a member of several expert bodies of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, as well as expert institutions dealing with organization and execution of public administration.
Hynek Brom joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in November 2009 as the Director of Section of State Aid and Administration and a month later he was appointed the First Vice-chairman. Since 1 March 2016 he is in charge of the Competition Division.
Hassan Qaqaya
University of Melbourne
Hassan Qaqaya is senior fellow, Law School, University of Melbourne, Australia, where he teaches at the Graduate Law school. He has also taught at Perdana University, KL, Malaysia, Deusto University, Bilbao, Spain, and Webster University, Geneva. He has advised several competition agencies, including among others Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Kenya, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, Paraguay, Ukraine, Mongolia, Philippines, Seychelles, Egypt and Tunisia.
Until 2015, he was the Head of the UNCTAD Competition and Consumer Policies, United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. For over three decades he advised governments, Public and private entities, and young competition and consumer agencies in over sixty developing countries and economies in transition on the formulation and enforcement of competition law and policy.
In these capacities, he team-led the analysis of complex competition and consumer protection related issues across a wide range of sectors and markets, and contributed to the formulation of national consumer and competition policies, and the institutional design of national enforcement institutions.
For more than three decades, Hassan Qaqaya was involved in teaching for the United Nations as well as in various Universities and Institutes across wide spectrums of countries and regions, while holding important positions at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
Mr. H Qaqaya has written and co-written over forty UN reports and studies. In addition to his teaching, he established the UNCTAD Research Partnership Platform (RPP), which brings together research institutions, universities, competition authorities, business and civil society.
Daniela Lukáčová
Slovak Competition Authority
Daniela Lukáčová has been working for the Slovak Competition Authority since 2001, when she joined the Authority after graduating from the Faculty of Law of the Comenius University in Bratislava. Her job was mainly devoted to the issues of protection of competition, in particular at the Division of Concentrations, the Division of Cartels and the Department of Second-Instance Proceedings, where she was often appointed to management positions. Currently she is the head of the Department of Second-Instance Proceedings. During her career, she was a part of case teams investigating merger cases such as Allianz /Slovenská poisťovňa, Südzucker AG /Saint-Luis Sucre, S.A., Holcim /VSH, Agrofert /Eurobakeries, in which the concentration was not approved, respectively it was approved under commitments. She was also active in the field of PPP projects and health insurance companies. She has participated in the preparation of legislative changes concerning the Act on the Protection of Competition, the legislation transposing EU law and related soft law. Regarding the foreign activities, she was active mainly in the EU Merger working group supporting the cooperation of the competition authorities. Since 2012, she has been responsible for the agenda related to the membership of Slovak Republic in OECD in the field of competition. Daniela Lukáčová is an author of many research papers in the field of competition and she was also involved in a research team within the scientific project of the Faculty of Law of Comenius University, which was focused on research in the field of competition.
Barbora Dubanská
Attorney at law
Barbora Dubanská is an attorney at law focusing on competition law and healthcare sector. Currently, she provides consulting services for companies active in pharma sector, especially within Novartis management and its worldwide network of lawyers. Previously, she worked as a head of the Central and Eastern Europe competition team at CMS International Law Office. She is recognized expert by various organizations such as Chambers Europe, Legal 500 and Legal Advisor.
She has concluded her postgraduate studies at the Law Faculty of Charles University and furthermore she has also wide range of foreign work experience. She graduated from Cambridge University (LL.M. studies and Lifesciences Accelarator at Judge Business School), she studied at Heinrich Heine Universität in Düsseldorf, Universidade de Lisboa and University of Queensland; currently she is finishing her Master of Healthcare Administration. During her career, she worked for CMS London (Competition and EU law) and CMS Munich. She speaks fluent English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Thursday 15 November 2018
PANEL IV: SIGNIFICANT MARKET POWER - Harmonisation of the fight against unfair trade practices within EU
Petr Solský
Vice-chairman; Czech Competition Authority
Petr Solský graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 1998. At the same Faculty he received JUDr. degree in the field of criminal law. He worked in public administration on a number of managing positions, for example at the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2010 he gained extensive experience at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU in Brussels where he was responsible for management of the division of justice and interior including the coordination of preparations of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. Back in the Czech Republic he worked in private sector in a law firm. Consequently he focused in particular on the area of information and communication technology, among others as a Deputy Minister of the Interior for this area in the years 2013 and 2014. Petr Solský has been focusing on a number of issues of criminal and administrative law including the regulatory framework for public procurement and prohibited state aid. He is a long term member of the Regulatory Impact Assessment Commission of the Government Legislative Council (RIA Commission).
On 5th April 2016 Petr Solský was appointed to the position of the Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and entrusted with the management of the Legislative and Public Regulation Division.
Jeroen Capiau
DG Competition
Jeroen Capiau joined the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission in 2009. He is currently a case handler in the Food Task Force which deals with competition cases and policy regarding the entire food supply chain. Before, he worked as a policy advisor in the Unit responsible for the European Competition Network, including on the preparation of the Commission proposal on the ECN+ Directive.
Previously, he worked for the Belgian Competition Authority where he first was employed as a case handler in the investigation branch and later became a member of the decision-making branch. Before working in the area of competition enforcement, he was a teaching assistant at the European Law Institute of the University of Ghent.
Mr. Capiau holds a degree in Law (1998) and in Advanced Studies in European Law (1999) from the University of Ghent. He has published several articles on EU competition law and the law of the internal market.
Jindřich Fialka
Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic
Jindřich Fialka has been a head of the Food Department within the Food Production Section of the Food Authority since 2015, and currently, he is also an acting head of the Office of the Minister of Agriculture.
Jindřich Fialka graduated from the Faculty of Agronomy of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague. He has been involved in drafting proposals for amendments to the Czech food law concerning food supply chain, including its practical implementation. He also participated in policy making with regard to quality of food and processed agricultural products both on national and EU level, in the development of food standards based on worldwide, European and national legal frameworks (Codex Alimentarius, EU food law), in coordination of the system of official supervision within the food supply chain including preparation of the national plan for the official supervision and audit, and in the preparation and administration of national subsidy schemes for modernisation of food and animal feed industry.
Jindřich Fialka served in a number of positions, for example as a chairman of the supervisory board of the Food Research Institute Prague or as a chairman of the Council of ICCO (International Cocoa Organization) in London. Currently, he represents the Czech Republic in the high-level EU forum for issues of functioning of the food supply chain, also in the UN Economic Commission for food standards in Geneva, at the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome and in Geneva and in the EU Council Working Parties on Food, on Food Standards and on Food Commodities. He is an author of number of publications on the topic of food law and food quality.
Jacek Marczak
Polish Competition Authority
Jacek Marczak is the deputy director in Polish Office of Consumer and Competition Protection (OCCP), Branch Office in Bydgoszcz. The Branch Office since July 2017 has been solely responsible for nationwide enforcement of Polish UTP act (Act of 15 December 2016 on counteracting the unfair use of contractual advantage in the trade in agricultural and food products). For seven years he also has been a case handler in antitrust and consumer protection cases in the fields such as unfair advertising, energy, water supplies, food and feed production, financial services, while as an attorney-at-law has represented the President of OCCP before courts since 2015.
In 2015 he was seconded to the Competition and Markets Authority and in 2017 joined the European Competition Network - Food Subgroup in 2017.
His alma mater is Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Law and Administration Department, Poland.
SPECIAL WORKSHOPS
I.“Settlement is when…”
The procedure of Settlement vs Request under Art. 22ba (2) of the Czech Act on the Protection of Competition
Igor Pospíšil
Czech Competition Authority
Igor Pospíšil completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 2001. Since 2001 he has been working as a lawyer at the Office for the Protection of Competition. From 2005 to 2008 he held the position of a Head of the Working Group for Liberal Professions and in the period 2006–2007 he was a Director of Manufacturing and Retail Unit. Since the year 2007 he has been working as a Director of the Cartel Unit. From 2004 to 2007 he was also acting as lector of administrative law, registered by the Ministry of the Interior. He co-authored several documents issued by the Office for the Protection of Competition and acted as a speaker in different conferences and seminars in the area of competition law. He also gives lectures on the issues of competition law.
Jitka Linhartová
Nedelka Kubáč advokáti
Jitka Linhartová is of counsel in both Prague and Bratislava offices of Nedelka Kubáč advokáti. She specialises in competition law, public procurement law and compliance. In competition law, she provides legal advisory to clients in various industries both in their day-to-day business activities and when under investigation by the Czech Competition Authority, the Slovak Antimonopoly Office or the European Commission. She assists clients in preparing their merger notifications, and represents them before the competition authorities and courts. In addition, she helps them create and implement internal compliance programmes, including regular compliance training.
Jitka worked for the Czech Competition Authority from 2004 to 2007. From 2007 to 2008 she worked for the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission. Since 2008, she has worked in the private sector, first at the Prague office of Gleiss Lutz and later Schoenherr until 2017, where she headed the competition unit.
As a regular contributor to the Czech-Slovak magazine "Antitrust" and to the global platform "International Law Office", Jitka has also co-authored several energy publications, such as the "European Energy Handbook" and "Global Energy Review". Jitka also regularly speaks at the conferences organised by the international platforms (e.g. UIA, Knecht365LAw).
II. Market power – Current trends and developments
Jana Zmeškalová
Czech Competition Authority
Jana Zmeškalová graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2005. She has worked at the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2014. In 2016, she became the head of the Control over Market Power Unit. Currently, she is the head of the Methodology and Control over Market Power Department. Between 2014 and 2015, she worked as a Remonstrance commission´s secretary for the Unit of 2nd Instance Decision-Making in the field of competition and participated in decisions processing as well as in defending the Office before administrative courts in a number of important cases. Before joining the Office, she had served for seven years as an assistant to presiding judge of a chamber of Criminal Division at the Supreme Court. From 2005 to 2007 she worked in a law firm.
Michal Nový
Czech Competition Authority
Since 2017, Michal Nový has been working at the Unit of Control over Market Power 1. After graduating from Masaryk University and Mendel University in Brno, he continued with his research studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of the Masaryk University. For three years, he lectured at selective courses of Public Administration and Political Behaviour. He is an author of numerous research papers, e.g. on local referendum, electronic elections, etc. Some of them were published in foreign impact journals. Previously, he worked at the Specialized Tax Office where he focused on the area of supervision over compliance with the Act on Prices and its implementing regulation.
III. excessive price
Jana Konopiská
Czech Competition Authority
Jana Konopiská graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno. She has joined the Office for the Protection of Competition since 1993 and in her professional career she has focused on competition issues in network industries. Currently Jana Konopiská serves as a Head of Dominance and Vertical Agreements Unit.
In addition to her practical experiences arising from the investigation of individual cases of potential competition infringement, Jana Konopiská has also gained extensive experiences when preparing draft laws or methodical and similar materials. She has participated in working groups at national and international level, dealing with various issues of competition law. Jana Konopiská has also participated as a lecturer in numerous national and foreign educational events in the area of competition law and economics or sector issues.
Jaroslav Bil
Czech Competition Authority
Jaroslav Bil graduated in mathematics and economics from the Faculty of Science of the Masaryk University in Brno. Afterwards, he taught mathematics, econometrics and micro- and macroeconomics at the university. Since 2014, he has worked at the Office for the Protection of Competition in the Chief Economist unit. From that position, he has participated in cases requiring more economic approach. Concerning the field of competition, he focuses mainly on the issue of relevant market definition. He has co-authored research papers and supervised number of thesis on this subject.
PANEL V: BID RIGGING - Current issues and new challenges
Kamil Nejezchleb
Czech Competition Authority
Kamil Nejezchleb studied at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno and at the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology. He joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in the year 2007 and currently he leads the Cartel Unit II. He also acts as an external lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University. He gained experience with application of competition law also abroad in particular during the traineeship in the European Commission and from the regular cooperation within competition networks ECN and ICN. Kamil Nejezchleb cooperated on drafting the methodology documents for leniency program and settlement procedures and also on last revisions of the Act on the Protection of Competition. Also, he participated in training courses dedicated to contracting authorities focused on bid rigging detection.
Mr. Nejezchleb published a number of articles in the area of competition law and he co-authored the publication "Economic Methods in Competition Law".
Petr Zákoucký
Dentons Europe CS LLP
JUDr. Petr Zákoucký, LL.M. is a partner at Dentons in Prague and leads the office's energy, competition and public procurement practice. He represents clients in the development of new projects, M&A, joint venture projects and disputes in the Czech Republic as well as within the region.
Within its regulatory practice, he also regularly lectures at conferences (including, for instance, TOPGAS and CEPKON conferences and Czech Competition Office) and at the retreats of the energy section of the Union of In-House Lawyers.
Before joining Dentons, Petr worked in Clifford Chance in Prague and Brussels (2006–2017) and White & Case (2002). He also completed internships with the General Court in Luxembourg and with the European Commission's DG Competition in Brussels. Petr obtained a master's degree in law from Charles University in Prague (2002), within which completed a one-year exchange study programme at a law faculty in Manchester (2001). He also completed LL.M. study programmes in Tuebingen (2004) and Amsterdam (2005).
Alexandros Papanikolaou
DG Competition
Alexandros Papanikolaou received his first law degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC, and an LLM in EU law at the College of Europe in Bruges. He spent seven years as a private practitioner of European competition law in Brussels before joining DG Competition in 2014 in the cartels directorate.
In 2018 he moved to the antitrust policy and case support unit in DG COMP, where his areas of focus include cartels, the leniency policy and fines.
Michal Fiala
Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office
Between 2005 and 2010, Michal Fiala served as a public prosecutor in the Economic Crime Department of the Municipal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Brno. Since 2010, he has served as a public prosecutor in the Department of Serious Economic and Financial Crime of the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office. His main fields of interest are issues of criminality connected with EU funds drawing, corruption and public procurement. In the area of the criminal law, he ensures communication and information exchange with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). He took part in several international study exchanges (Serious Fraud Office, Securities and Exchange Commission, European Anti-Fraud Office). He was involved in the activities of expert bodies of the OECD within the Task Force on Tax Crimes and Other Crimes.
