Competition & Innovation Lab

AI & Antitrust Webinar Series Part 3 - AI-Assisted Price Discrimination
2025-11-21 12:00 - 13:00 UTC | University Student Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Room 405, NW, 20052, United States
This three-part AI and Antitrust Enforcement Webinar Series brought together leading experts to examine the current state and challenges of artificial intelligence to antitrust and enforcement across jurisdictions, focusing on collusion and price discrimination. The Webinar fostered a rich, comparative discussion of how AI technologies challenge and inform modern antitrust frameworks worldwide.
The series concluded with Part III: AI-Assisted Price Discrimination, exploring how AI tools enable personalized pricing and the implications for consumer welfare and antitrust enforcement.

Moderator: Oscar Borgogno (GW Competition & Innovation Lab)
Panelists:o John Yun (GMU)o Miroslava Marinova (University of East London)o Jorge Padilla (Compass Lexecon)o Professor Christian Bergqvist (Copenhagen University)

Comparing different child protection laws within the EU and US in the digital sphere
2025-11-22 10:00 - 23:00 | The George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st St., NW, WA, 20052, United States
A bipartisan group of 14 US attorneys general filed lawsuits against TikTok, alleging that the platform has “addicted” young people, ultimately harming their mental health. Similarly, the European Commission has opened formal proceedings against TikTok to assess whether they protect minors adequately. With so many digital services at their fingertips, children are exposed to certain risks. But how does the US and the EU handle issues of child protection?
To answer this question, this panel focuses on the key differences between the legal, social and practical approach to child protection efforts across the globe, with an emphasis on the EU and the US. Through this discussion, we aim to shed light on current trends, the biggest threats and also the best possible ways forward when it comes to child protection efforts in the digital sphere.

Stacey Steinberg
Stacey Steinberg is the supervising attorney for the Gator TeamChild Juvenile Law Clinic. She also serves as Director for the Center on Children and Families. Professor Steinberg’s research explores the intersection of a parent’s right to share online and a child’s interest in privacy.
https://www.linkedin.com/school/uflaw/

Manon Baert
Manon Baert is the EU Advocacy and Policy Officer at 5Rights Foundation where she focuses on the implementation of Children’s Rights within EU digital policy. She previously worked in EU affairs within a non-profit and a consultancy, with a focus on human rights and sustainability. Manon was also a legal trainee at the EU Delegation to the Council of Europe and has a background in European Law and International Affairs.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-baert/

Monika Mercz
Monika Mercz is a visiting researcher at The GW Competition and Innovation Lab. She is a founding editor of the Constitutional Discourse blog, the international director of Central European Lawyers Initiative, and is completing her PhD at the Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/m%C3%B3nika-mercz-287206201/

Ask the European Commission: Reforming Merger Control in Europe
2025-12-03 16:30 - 20:30 | University Student Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Room 405, NW, 20052, United States
The GW Competition & Innovation Lab and Compass Lexecon organize this extraordinary interactive forum that promises to illuminate the path forward for European merger control. In an era of rapid economic transformation and intensifying global competition, this event offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with the architects of EU policy at the Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP).
Featured Speakers: – Hans Zenger, Head of the Chief Economist Team, DG COMP, European Commission – Daniele Calisti, Head of the Merger Unit, DG COMP, European Commission
Join a distinguished assembly of main questioners—Ingrid Vandenborre (Skadden) and Roman Fischer (Compass Lexecon) and our moderator Lorenzo Coppi (Compass Lexecon) —alongside additional questioners including Konstantin Bodarenko (Freshfields), Anita Magraner (Cleary), Orestis Omran (DLA Piper), and Kasia Czapracka (White & Case).

This dynamic format empowers participants to pose incisive questions, fostering candid dialogue on the DG COMP’s ongoing merger consultation and its implications for innovation, market dynamics, and regulatory evolution.
This pivotal discussion will explore critical reforms designed to balance robust enforcement with the imperatives of technological advancement and economic vitality.

By participating, you will contribute to shaping a competition framework that sustains Europe’s leadership in the global marketplace.

Registar to attend here

NextGen Antitrust Forum
2025-12-09 17:00 - 19:00 | University Student Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Room 405, NW, 20052, United States
The GW Competition and Innovation Lab and NERA were pleased to organize the first-ever NextGen Antitrust Forum, a new platform for rising antitrust economists and lawyers interested in exchanging ideas, making connections, and taking part in discussions on current issues in competition policy.

The inaugural session focused on “Vertical Integration Revisited: Evidence, Theory, and Antitrust Policy.” The discussion looked at how empirical work and economic thinking shape today’s debates on enforcement and policy.
Speakers included NERA Senior Consultant Elena Ramirez Pierce, Latham & Watkins Counsel Francesca Pisano, RTX Director and Senior Counsel Elyssa Wenzel, and AT&T Senior Legal Counsel Amanda Norton, with NERA Director Emily Walden moderating.

Agenda

Time
Session

5:00 PM

Registration and Welcome Drinks

5:30 PM

Presentation and Discussion

6:30 PM

Post-Session Drinks and Discussion

What, Why and How? Exploring the European Union's Ambitious Competition Policy Reforms
2025-12-12 09:30 - 10:30 | The George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st St., NW, WA, 20052, United States
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

Thorsten Kaeseberg
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
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
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
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.

UK Class Action Regimes in Transition - Webinar
2026-01-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual Event, The George Washington University, GW Competition & Innovation Lab, 20052, United States
What to Expect from Reform

Ten years after the Consumer Rights Act 2015 introduced opt-out collective proceedings for competition claims in the CAT, the UK Government has opened a review of the regime. While the review ranges across funding, scope, and certification, ADR and settlement, damages, and distribution, its core task is to assess whether the framework strikes the right balance: delivering access to collective redress and deterrence for consumers while providing procedural and cost certainty for defendants.
Set against the regime’s original objectives – improved redress, effective deterrence, and safeguards against unmeritorious settlements – this webinar will examine where the system is working, where calibration may be needed, and what the reforms should be prioritize.

Participants:
Miroslava Marinova – GW Competition & Innovation Lab
Professor Barry Rodger – University of Strathclyde
Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen – Senior Research Fellow and the Director of the Competition Law Forum at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Professor Sean Ennis – University of East Anglia
Jason Shardlow-Wrest – Managing Associate, Linklaters

India's Competition & Innovation Forum 2026
2026-02-18 09:00 - 18:00 | Media and Public Affairs Building, VENUE AND LOCATION TBA SOON, 20052, United States
Following our successful inaugural event, The George Washington University Competition & Innovation Lab is proud to organize the second occurrence of India’s Competition & Innovation Forum on February 18, 2026. More info is coming soon, but mark your calendar now!

Register to attend here

Australia Competition Conference
2026-02-26 09:00 - 18:00 | University Student Center, 800 21st Street, NW, Room 405, NW, 20052, United States
The George Washington University Competition & Innovation Lab is proud to officially launch its Australia Initiative, led by Dr. Aaron Lane, by organizing a conference in Melbourne on February 26, 2026.
The following speakers have been confirmed:

Professor Aurelien Portuese (GWU)
Dr Aaron Lane (GWU & RMIT)
Professor Chris Berg (RMIT)
Commissioner Alex Robson (Productivity Commission)
Kirsten Webb (Clayton Utz)
Rosannah Healy (Allens)

More info is coming soon, but mark your calendar now!

Register to Apply

3rd Annual Antitrust Workshop
2026-05-19 09:00 - 17:00 | The George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st St., NW, WA, 20052, United States
After our first two successful antitrust workshops in 2024 and 2025, we are thrilled to present our 3rd Annual Antitrust Workshop for our Senior Fellows and Regional Leaders. More info to come soon!
