News & Events

Some of the events, conferences, publications and projects we have worked on are listed below. Some other projects are not listed as we must respect client confidentiality in sensitive areas.

30 October 2018 - Digital Platform, Ex-post Evaluation, Mergers, Technology sector

Past merger assessment in the technology sector

Lear is pleased to announce a research and evaluation project for the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) looking at approaches to assessing potential theories of harm and evaluating past merger decisions in the technology sector. Read more

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17 October 2018 - Capacity Building, Public Private Partnership, Public Procurement

Workshop on Contemporary Issues in Procurement Practices in Paris

Lear is proud to sponsor the Workshop on Contemporary Issues in Procurement Practices, organized by the IMPPM Alumni Association in collaboration with the University of Rome Tor Vergata. The Workshop will take place at the headquarter of UNESCO in Paris on 23rd and 24th October 2018. Read more

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4 October 2018 - Competition Economics

Italian Competition Authority’s investigation into planned obsolescence in the smartphone sector

Lear has been retained by Samsung to assist within consumer protection proceedings started by the Italian Competition Authority (ICA).
The ICA alleged that software updates for a popular smartphone model had the effect of deteriorating the device’s performance. Read more

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3 October 2018 - Capacity Building, Public Procurement, Technical Assistance, Tribunal skills

Training on Tribunal Skills in Public Procurement

Lear is glad to welcome a delegation from the Bosnian Public Procurement Review Body (PRB) composed by the President and 3 Members in its office in Rome.
The study visits is currently taking place and has been organized within the scope of the EBRD funded project “Enhancing the tribunal skills and capacity of the PRB” :
Read more

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6 September 2018 - #Advocacy #Competition, #Economics, Capacity Building

Competition Advocacy: a new strategy and capacity building programme for the Jamaican Fair Trading Commission

Lear is providing technical assistance to the Jamaica’s Fair Trading Commission (“FTC”) to strengthen its skills on competition advocacy. The main objectives of the assignment are to perform an assessment of the effectiveness of past FTC’s advocacy initiatives, to develop a new competition advocacy strategy and to build capacity within the FTC to pursue its advocacy objectives. Read more

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31 July 2018 - Advocacy, Competition Law, Competition Policy

Western Balkans and the Design of Effective Competition Law: The Role of Economic, Institutional and Cultural Characteristics

The study “Western Balkans and the Design of Effective Competition Law: The Role of Economic, Institutional and Cultural Characteristics” by Paolo Buccirossi and Lorenzo Ciari has been published by Springer in the book “Competition Authorities in South Eastern Europe”, edited by Boris Begović and Dušan V. Popović.
The paper analyzes the optimal design of competition law in Western Balkan countries. It first identifies the “policy choice set”, i.e. the essential variables that define a competition policy regime; Read more

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12 July 2018 - Abuse of Dominance, Competition Economics, Maritime Transport

Alleged foreclosure in the market for maritime freight transport

Lear has assisted Moby in its appeal before the administrative court seeking to overturn the finding of the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) that Moby had abused its dominant position in the market for maritime freight transport to and from Sardinia. Read more

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4 July 2018 - Capacity Building, Public Procurement

PAOLO BUCCIROSSI AT GLOBAL PROCUREMENT CONFERENCE IN ROME

The 3rd Global Procurement Conference is the annual international conference organized by the University of Rome Tor Vergata on July 2 and 3, 2018. The event was the occasion where practitioners and academics meet to share opinion and discuss on the latest cutting-edge topics in the field of public procurement, such as contract amendments, innovation, e-procurement and centralization. Read more

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19 June 2018 - Cartels, Competition Economics

The Italian Competition Authority’s investigation against Kedrion and Grifols

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has started an investigation into Kedrion and Grifols, two providers of therapeutic products derived from human blood plasma, for their joint participation in a tender launched by the Italian Healthcare System (SSN). The ICA is concerned that the joint bid has unduly restricted competition for the award of the tender. Read more

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15 June 2018 - #Economics, Antitrust, Competition Law

Paolo at Trento Summer School 2018

The fourth edition of the Trento Summer School on Advanced EU Competition Law & Economics will take place in Moena (Italian Dolomites) from 17th to 24th June 2018.
This event is organized by the Osservatorio Permanente sull’Applicazione delle Regole di Concorrenza and provides the opportunity to deepen the relationship between competition law and economics by anlayzing competition rules from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. Read more