ALTI Amsterdam

Blockchain, Metaverses, and Crypto-Anarchism
2022-10-13 12:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Paris)
What: A fireside chat between Chris Berg (RMIT) and Thibault Schrepel (VU Amsterdam) about blockchain, metaverses, and crypto-anarchism.
Where: VU Amsterdam. You will be informed of the room number a few days before the event.
When: October 13, 2022, from 12:00 to 13:00.
REGISTER OVER HERE
(no access will be granted without registration)
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The Criminal Metaverse
2022-12-09 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Room NU-4B47
What: A fireside chat between Eldar Haber (University of Haifa) and Anne de Hingh (VU Amsterdam) about criminal activities in the metaverse.
Where: VU Amsterdam, Room NU-4B47.
When: December 9, 2022, from 12:00 to 13:00.
REGISTER OVER HERE
(no access will be granted without registration)
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Antitrust Under The Palms
2023-02-07 - 2023-02-08
What: Antitrust Under the Palms: A Competition Policy Event
Where: Miami, Florida – venue TBD
When: February 7 -8, 2023
Why: The need for collaboration is great since it is impossible to overstate the sea change that has occurred in antitrust enforcement over the past year. Policymakers and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic have embarked upon countless initiatives to preemptively regulate and/or sanction large swaths of the economy in the name of competition.
Unfortunately, these initiatives appear to be united by a paucity of theoretical underpinnings and several misapprehensions about business, big or otherwise. To put it mildly, there is a strong sense that the error-cost framework has, at least in part, given way to expediency and politically-motivated intervention. The goal of this event is to discuss more broadly what it means to be a classical competition scholar in this rapidly deteriorating policy environment, and, where possible, to identify points of convergence we can develop together.
Who: ICLE + ALTI

Dynamic Competition Applied
2023-04-13 08:00 - 2023-04-14 17:00

BILETA 2023
2023-04-13 09:00 - 2023-04-14 17:00 | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Boelelaan 1077, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Netherlands

Online event: Competition & Innovation
2023-11-29 15:00 - 17:00 | Online
Online event: Competition & Innovation (Nov. 29)
The Dynamic Competition Initiative, supported by ALTI, is pleased to invite you to a free online event entitled “Innovation & Competition”. DCI scholars will present their latest research on the interplay between competition and innovation, including a systematic literature review and new evidence. Frederic Jenny, Chair of the OECD Competition Committee, will present the OECD’s work in this area ahead of the OECD Roundtable on Innovation and Competition scheduled for December 4.
Register over here

Chief Economist Roundtable
2023-12-05 08:30 - 14:00 | EUI, Italy
Chief Economist Roundtable (Dec. 5)
ALTi is a proud co-sponsor of this new DCI event featuring four former European Commission’s Chief Economists. The event will be live-streamed.

Conference: Dynamics of Generative AI
2024-03-22 08:30 - 18:00 | Berlin, Germany, Berlin, Germany
Conference: Dynamics of Generative AI
The Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute is co-organizing a conference on the “Dynamics of Generative AI” together with the Weizenbaum Institute (Berlin, Germany). The event follows the publication of dedicated articles – edited by Thibault Schrepel (ALTI) and Volker Stocker (Weizenbaum Institute) – in the Network Law Review. Registration to receive a recording of the event is open here.

ALTI Summer School 4th Edition
2024-07-01 - 2024-07-05 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Registrations for our ALTI Summer School are open! Join the 4th Edition of the only Multidisciplinary Summer School focused on the Synergy Artificial Intelligence – Space Law.
Dates: 1 – 5 July 2024.
Location: Hybrid (on campus at VU Amsterdam and Online, Live on Zoom).
Details and Registrations on the programme’s website: https://www.multidisciplinaryai.org/.
Do you have questions about the ALTI Summer School? Contact the Course Coordinator, Ioana Bratu (i.bratu@vu.nl).

Diane Coyle: Welfare Assessment in a Digital Economy
2024-09-26 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Professor Dame Diane Coyle is the Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. She co-directs the Bennett Institute where she heads research under the themes of progress and productivity.
Description: Are we seeing the end of technocracy in antitrust? Competition analysis has been for some decades an increasingly technical activity, with an implicit assumption that there is an underlying ‘correct’ answer in terms of consumer welfare impacts. However, the normative implications of decisions are becoming increasingly clear in today’s context of extremely dynamic technology-driven markets and the revival of political interest in industrial policies. The way some markets evolve in the short term may shape the supply side of the economy for decades to come, highlighting the normative choices involved.
Format: Professor Coyle will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.

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Paul Seabright: A Response to the Draghi Report on EU competitiveness
2024-10-30 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Paul Seabright is a Professor of Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics.
Format: Professor Seabright will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.
Description: Where, geographically, do the benefits of innovative activity accrue? If a highly innovative startup in the EU is highly successful, what kinds of benefits are created and for whom, and how is this different if the same startup relocates to Silicon Valley? In the most innovative sectors, a large share of the benefits accrues to customers (as recent research by Hunt Allcott and others suggests), who may be located anywhere in the world. The Draghi Report is hopeless about this, and much of the current discussion around the importance of keeping manufacturing strong in the EU fails to distinguish between manufacturing that generates real location-specific externalities and manufacturing that merely keeps factories humming.

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Volker Stocker: Policy Challenges of AI-driven Ecosystems
2024-12-02 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Volker Stocker is the Head of the Research Group “Work and Cooperation in the Sharing Economy” at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (German Internet Institute).
Format: Dr. Stocker will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.
Description: Dr. Stocker will explore the evolution and current state of AI-driven ecosystems and their profound impact on our digital landscape. He will examine key developments shaping these ecosystems and highlight the resulting policy challenges that demand attention. The talk will conclude with insights into potential policy implications.

[event] Substance Over Slogans: Strengthening The Foundations of Antitrust
2025-01-17 08:00 - 17:00 | Paris, France
REGISTER HERE
ABOUT:
Our aim for this conference is to look past the headlines and politicized arguments that have defined the last several years of competition-policy discourse to examine the current academic foundations of antitrust and what they say about contemporary competition policy.
The competition-policy landscape is shifting almost as rapidly as the industries it seeks to regulate. Over the past few years, a new trend has seemingly taken hold of the field: Scholars and enforcers increasingly reject the economically grounded learnings of decades of legal analysis, enforcement experience, and applied industrial organization research in favor of untested policy initiatives reflecting mostly political preferences, not rigorous scholarship.
Against this backdrop, our Paris conference will discuss the state of the art of economic and legal research, and explore whether and where it may provide a rigorously supported basis for departing from antitrust’s traditional foundations.
The conference will bring together an unparalleled assembly of top academics, influential policymakers, and business experts to engage in a dynamic exploration of the assumptions that underpin contemporary competition enforcement.
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

Pinar Akman (University of Leeds)
Brian Albrecht (ICLE)
Gustavo Augusto (Administrative Council for Economics Defense)
Dirk Auer (ICLE)
Reiko Aoki (Japan Fair Trade Commission)
Dennis W. Carlton (University of Chicago)
Andy Chen (Taiwan Fair Trade Commission)
Kenneth Elzinga (University of Virginia)
Cani Fernández Vicién (Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission)
Richard Gilbert (Berkeley)
Oliver Hart (Harvard)
Melissa Holyoak (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)
Herbert Hovenkamp (University of Pennsylvania)
Marc Ivaldi (Toulouse School of Economics)
Frédéric Jenny (ESSEC Business School)
Ginger Zhe Jin (University of Maryland)
Geoffrey Manne (ICLE)
Francisco Marcos (IE Law School Madrid)
Philip Marsden (Bank of England)
Nicolas Petit (European University Institute)
Lazar Radic (IE Law School Madrid)
Thibault Schrepel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Paul Seabright (Toulouse School of Economics)
Koren W. Wong-Ervin (Jones Day)

HOSTED BY:

European University Institute Department of Law (Nicolas Petit)
IE Law School Madrid (Francisco Marcos and Lazar Radic)
International Center for Law & Economics (Geoffrey Manne and Dirk Auer)
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (Thibault Schrepel)

[event] Sofia Ranchordás: The New Regulatory State
2025-01-30 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Sofia Ranchordás is a Full Professor of Administrative Law at Tilburg Law School.
Description: In this talk, Sofia Ranchordas will present her new book with Karen Yeung ‘Introduction to Law and Regulation’ (CUP 2024) by discussing how regulation has evolved in terms of goals and instruments. Regulatory studies have long justified the adoption of new regulations based on economic arguments, metrics, and quantifiable methods. But regulation is not only about numbers. It is about people and their everyday quantifiable and non-quantifiable problems. In this talk, she will discuss how regulators should thus consider race, gender, and different socioeconomic inequities in regulation and how this can be translated into modern instruments, methods, and theories of regulation.
Format: Prof. Ranchordás will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.
Recording (Only the presentation Q&A not included):

[event] Bill Kovacic: Cautionary Tales about (Digital) Industrial Policy
2025-02-17 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Bill Kovacic is the Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy at the George Washington University where he directs the Competition Law Center. He is the former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
Format: Prof. Kovacic will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.

[CANCELED] Nicolas Petit: The Deep Structures of Law and Tech
2025-02-21 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* Nicolas Petit is Professor of Competition Law and Head of the Department of Law of the European University Institute (EUI).
Format: Professor Petit will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.
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[event] Pinar Akman: Antitrust Remedies for Big Tech
2025-03-28 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Pinar Akman is a Professor of Law specializing in competition law at the School of Law, University of Leeds.
Format: Prof. Akman will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.
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[event] Competition Law Doctoral Forum
2025-04-25 09:30 - 16:00
Organizers: Thibault Schrepel & Georgiana Mirza
Concept: We are delighted to announce the first edition of the “Competition Law Doctoral Forum.” The concept is simple yet ambitious: to establish an annual gathering of promising PhD candidates in the Netherlands focusing on (digital) competition law issues. Participants will have the opportunity to present their research, exchange ideas, and engage in meaningful discussions. For this first edition, we are pleased to announce that Martijn Snoep, President of the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), will join us.
When: 25 April 2025, from 09:30 to 16:00.
Where: At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam campus (room will be disclosed to registered participants before the event)
Format: This conference uses the 3C Format to structure feedback for each presentation. Every talk will receive three types of comments: 1. Challenge (devil’s advocate); 2. Contribute (fresh perspective); 3. Commend (compliment). Why 3C? This method encourages well‐rounded discussion: identifying potential weaknesses, suggesting new angles, and recognizing strengths. It’s designed to keep the exchange both rigorous and supportive.
Program:
9:30 to 10:00 – Reception
10:00 to 10:10 – Opening remarks (Thibault Schrepel)
10:10 to 10:20 – Reflecting on 25 years of supervising PhDs (Arno Lodder)
10:20 to 11:00 – Keynote Martijn Snoep
11:00 to 12:30 – Session 1 – Competition in digital markets

David van Wamel (Leiden University): Commission’s power to impose interim measures in digital markets
Georgiana Mirza (VU Amsterdam): Digital ecosystems in competition law and market regulation
Max van Iersel (Tilburg University): EU merger policy’s impact on startup innovation ecosystems

12:30 to 14:00 – Lunch Break
14:00 to 15:00 – Session 2 – Overlapping regulatory regimes

Belle Beems (Radboud University Nijmegen): Intersection of competition law, DMA, GDPR, and institutional cooperation
Kena Zhang (Maastricht University): Antitrust in AI infrastructure (data & compute), comparing EU, US, China

15:00 to 16:00 – Session 3 – Looking ahead ((innovation, blockchain, sustainability)

Qihan Xu (Erasmus University Rotterdam): Blockchain‐based collusive agreements in China and sufficiency of legislation
Stephanie Penereiro (USP Law School / VU Amsterdam): Competition law and sustainability (origins, comparative overview, possible approaches)

16:00 to 16:10 – Closing Remarks (Georgiana Mirza & Thibault Schrepel)
16:10 to 18:00 – Cocktail reception

Registration to attend the event:
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[event] Godefroy de Boiscuillé: The EU Digital Single Market Paradox
2025-05-16 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Godefroy de Boiscuillé is Maître de Conférences at Côte d’Azur University and Co-Director of the Chair Competition & Digital Economics at Panthéon-Assas University Paris II.
Description: The goal of creating a unified digital economy is being undermined by the steady rise in trade barriers, often framed under the innocuous term “ex ante regulation.” This presentation will focus on four key points: (1) In digital markets, the approach of negative integration—removing barriers to trade—is increasingly contradicted by new measures that have effects equivalent to quantitative restrictions. (2) The strategy of positive integration—establishing EU-wide norms and standards—is weakened by the proliferation of conflicting standards. (3) Exceptions to the free movement of goods are multiplying, justified by objectives that often conflict with other equally important goals. (4) While the Digital Single Market is based on the principles of the common market, it introduces a less liberal philosophy compared to the traditional internal market framework. Together, these dynamics reveal a paradox: the very goal of a unified digital market risks being undermined by the growing layers of regulation fragmenting the digital economy.
Format: Dr. de Boiscuillé will give a 30-minute talk, which will be followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel.

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[conference] Law & Technology & Economics of AI
2025-05-22 08:00 - 2025-05-23 17:00 | Hong Kong
Law & Technology & Economics of AI
Dates: May 22 – 23, 2025 (Thursday – Friday)
Time: 9:30am – 5:30pm
Organiers: Adrian Kuenzler, Thibault Schrepel, Volker Stocker
Venue: Academic Conference Room, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
The conference seeks to provide a multidisciplinary forum to explore challenges regarding AI regulation, and to shed new light on meaningful regulatory design. It will bring together top scholars from law, economics, and computer science to present their work and engage in discussions across disciplinary boundaries.
Register here: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=100103
***
22 MAY 2025 (DAY 1)
Welcome by the Organizers (9:40 – 10am)
Adrian Kuenzler, Thibault Schrepel, Volker Stocker
Panel 1: AI and Competition (10 – 11:30am)
Chair & Moderator: Thibault Schrepel (VU Amsterdam)
Presenters:
• Julian Nowag (The University of Hong Kong)
Algorithmic Predation and Exclusion
• Nuno Cunha Rodrigues (Universidade de Lisboa/Portuguese Competition Authority)
Crafting the Regulatory Ecosystem for AI: Competition 2.0
• Antonio Capobianco (OECD Competition Division)
Competition in the Provision of Cloud Computing Services
• Elettra Bietti (Northeastern University)
Keynote Speech (11:45am – 12:45pm)
Christopher Yoo (Imasogie Professor in Law and Technology; Professor of Communication; Professor of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School)
Panel 2: AI Act and Copyright (2:00 – 3:30 pm)
Chair & Moderator: Volker Stocker (Weizenbaum Institute)
Presenters:
• Daniel Schnurr (University of Regensburg)
Implementing the European AI Act: Balancing Horizontal Consistency with Sector-Specific Requirements
• Sandra Marco Colino (The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Copyrighting AI’s Artistic Streak: The China-US Divide
• Zachary Cooper (VU Amsterdam)
Limits to Copyright’s Power Over the Next-Generation of Generative AI Media
Panel 3: AI Economics and Regulation (4:00 – 5:30pm)
Chair & Moderator: Adrian Kuenzler (The University of Hong Kong)
Presenters:
• Jason Potts (RMIT University)
Governing Hyperobjects – New Economics of AI Regulation
• William Lehr & Volker Stocker (MIT & Weizenbaum Institute)
Agentic AI – Friend and Foe
• Alba Ribera Martínez (Universidad Villanueva) – ONLINE
Generative AI Training Data and the Challenge of Lawful Scale
***
23 MAY 2025 (DAY 2)
Keynote Speech (9:30 – 10:30am)
Sandra Matz (Columbia Business School) – ONLINE
Panel 4: Data and AI (10:30am – 12:00 noon)
Chair & Moderator: Thibault Schrepel (VU Amsterdam)
Presenters:
• Ginger Zhe Jin (University of Maryland)
Artificial Intelligence and Data Policies
• Kyohei Yamamoto (Japan Fair Trade Commission)
AI, Competition and Data Regulation in Japan
• Robert Mahari (MIT Media Lab) – ONLINE
Panel 5: Governing AI (1:15 – 2:45pm)
Chair & Moderator: Volker Stocker (Weizenbaum Institute)
Presenters:
• Michal Shur-Ofry (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
AI Governance as Regulation of Collective Memory
Paul Ohm (Georgetown University Law Center)
Focusing on Fine-Tuning: Understanding the Four Pathways for Shaping Generative AI
• Harry Surden (University of Colorado Law School)
The Limits of Prediction in Technology Policy: Why AI Regulation Must Embrace Uncertainty
Panel 6: Jurisdictional Challenges and AI Policies (3:15 – 4:45pm)
Chair & Moderator: Adrian Kuenzler (The University of Hong Kong)
Presenters:
• Florence G’sell (Scienes Po/Stanford University)
The EU’s Model of Comprehensive Technology Regulation
• Yo Sop Choi (Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Seoul)
The New AI Regulation in Korea
• Yasunori Tabei (Japan Fair Trade Commission)
Japanese AI Regulation
• Catalina Goanta (Utrecht University) – ONLINE
Closing Remarks by the Organizers (4:45 – 5pm)
This event is free of charge.

For inquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at mcgrace@hku.hk / 3917 4727.

[event] Herbert Hovenkamp: Tech Monopolies
2025-06-03 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Speaker: Herbert Hovenkamp is the James G. Dinan University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the Wharton School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2008 won the Justice Department’s John Sherman Award for his lifetime contributions to antitrust law. In 2012 he served on the ABA’s Committee to advise the President-elect on antitrust matters. His principal writing includes The Opening of American Law: Neoclassical Legal Thought, 1870-1970 (Oxford, 2015); Antitrust Law (formerly with Phillip E. Areeda and Donald F. Turner) (22 vols., Aspen 2008-2021); Principle of Antitrust (West 2d ed. 2021); Creation Without Restraint: Promoting Liberty and Rivalry in Innovation (Oxford, 2012, with Bohannan); The Making of Competition Policy (Oxford, 2012, with Crane); The Antitrust Enterprise: Principle and Execution (Harvard, 2006); Federal Antitrust Policy: The Law of Competition and Its Practice (West, 5th ed. 2015); IP and Antitrust (2 vols., Aspen, 2017, with Janis, Lemley, Leslie, and Carrier); and Enterprise and American Law, 1836-1937 (Harvard, 1991). He has also co-authored casebooks in antitrust, property law, and a free open source casebook on innovation and competition policy. He has consulted on numerous antitrust cases for various government entities and private plaintiffs. He has two sons.
Description: In an era defined by the dominance of tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, questions surrounding market power, consumer harm, and regulatory intervention are more urgent than ever. Join us for a timely and thought-provoking conversation with Herbert Hovenkamp, one of the world’s leading antitrust scholars, as he presents insights from his new book, Tech Monopoly. In this talk, Professor Hovenkamp will explore how antitrust law grapples with the complexities of digital markets, ranging from software and search engines to online retail and hardware. He will examine how features like two-sided markets, data aggregation, and platform effects challenge traditional competition analysis and enforcement. From foundational legal principles to pressing policy debates (such as whether Big Tech firms should be broken up and what remedies might actually benefit users) this event offers a clear and accessible entry point into one of today’s most contentious economic issues. Whether you are a legal scholar, economist, policymaker, a practitioner, or simply interested in the intersection of law and technology, this discussion will provide valuable tools for understanding and evaluating the current state of antitrust law in the digital age.
Format: Prof. Herbert Hovenkamp will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.

[event] Richard S. Markovits: The Impact of Mergers on R&D
2025-06-17 12:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Speaker: Richard Markovits is the John B. Connally Chair in Law at the University of Texas. He teaches and writes in the areas of antitrust, law and economics, constitutional law and jurisprudence. He is the author of articles in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review and elsewhere as well as the book Matters of Principle: Legitimate Legal Argument and Constitutional Interpretation (NYU, 1998), Truth or Economics: On the Definition, Prediction, and Relevance of Economic Efficiency (Yale, 2008), and Economics and the Interpretation and Application of U.S. and E.U. Antitrust Law (two vols.) (Springer, 2014). He came to Texas from Stanford Law School in 1976.
Description: This talk will examine how mergers and acquisitions affect R&D investment through two mechanisms: reducing price competition (which increases investment) and altering investment competition intensity (an overlooked factor in antitrust analysis). It will then challenge the assumption that more R&D will always be economically efficient, arguing that product R&D will tend to be over-incentivized while production-process R&D will be under-incentivized due to market imperfections. Prof. Markovits will further contend that current policies combining IP protections with immediate R&D expense deductions create uncertainty about optimal investment levels because we are not able to accurately measure how individual projects affect discovery probabilities or the true breadth of IP protection across different types of innovations.
Format: Prof. Richard S. Markovits will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.
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Inaugural Conference: Space Law & Sustainability Center (VU ALTI & ASI)
2025-06-20 10:00 - 17:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
VU Amsterdam has repeatedly been recognized as the most sustainable university in the Netherlands and, in 2023, made a groundbreaking decision to cut ties with fossil fuel companies that do not comply with the Paris Agreement. It is only natural for our university’s focus on sustainable development to extend beyond Earth’s boundaries.
The Space Law & Sustainability Center is founded by two existing VU institutes, Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (ALTI) and Amsterdam Sustainability Institute (ASI), with the purpose of providing an interdepartmental platform for dialogue and multidisciplinary collaboration within the VU Amsterdam community, focusing on the expanding scope of human activities in outer space. The Center enhances cross-faculty collaboration by demonstrating how ‘space’ connects multiple expertise because it acts as an enabler for the fulfillment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The Amsterdam Center for Space Law & Sustainability contributes to the activities of the UNSDSN Dutch chapter hosted at VU Amsterdam. Externally, the Center engages in valorization and impact activities within the Dutch ecosystem and at international level. It aims to collaborate with universities, research centers, the private sector, NGOs and public bodies.
Join us on 20 June 2025 in Amsterdam & online for the launch event!
This launch will be marked by an international conference aimed at defining “space sustainability” as a matter of international security. In the context of rapidly expanding space activities, urgent challenges have emerged—ranging from the accumulation of orbital debris and the militarization of space to the commercialization of space resources without adequate regulatory oversight. Alongside national and international experts, we will examine the provisions of the Pact of the Future, a landmark UN Resolution A/RES/79/1 adopted in September 2024, referring, among others, to the need for new frameworks concerning space debris, space traffic management, and space resources. The conference will also present a set of critical and innovative assessments concerning the adoption of artificial intelligence and quantum technologies in outer space as well as a series of multidisciplinary approaches to space sustainability.
Alongside national and international experts we will discuss the following topics:

EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVES (LEGAL & TECHNICAL) ON SPACE SUSTAINABILITY & SECURITY
FUTURE FRAMEWORKS IN LINE WITH THE UNITED NATIONS PACT OF THE FUTURE
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE & QUANTUM TECH FOR SPACE SECURITY: LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO SPACE SUSTAINABILITY
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION FOR SUSTAINABLE & SECURE SPACE

Participation is free, but registration is required. Register here.

[event] Geoffrey A. Manne: DMA Goes Global
2025-10-10 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Speaker: Geoffrey A. Manne is the president and founder of the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center based in Portland, Oregon. He is also a Visiting Professor at IE University in Madrid, and a distinguished fellow at Northwestern University’s Center on Law, Business, and Economics. Manne holds AB & JD degrees from the University of Chicago. He is an expert in the economic analysis of law, focusing particularly on antitrust, consumer protection, telecom, IP, and technology regulation. From 2003 to 2006 he was an assistant professor at Lewis & Clark Law School where he taught law & economics, international economic regulation, corporations, and other courses. In 2006 he decamped from Lewis & Clark to work in Microsoft’s legal department, heading up a program on law & economics academic engagement. He subsequently founded ICLE in 2009. Prior to teaching, Manne practiced antitrust law and appellate litigation at Latham & Watkins, clerked for Hon. Morris S. Arnold on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and worked as a research assistant for Judge Richard A. Posner. He was also once (very briefly) employed by the FTC. His writings and publications are available at SSRN and ICLE.
Description: This presentation will examine the rise of Digital Competition Regulations (DCRs) such as the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) and their global counterparts. It will argue that DCRs will depart fundamentally from traditional competition law, prioritizing rent redistribution, the facilitation of rivals, and the deliberate weakening of successful platforms over consumer welfare or innovation. Drawing on cases like Apple’s DMA compliance and the Android Auto decision, the talk will highlight the conceptual ambiguities, innovation risks, and broader paradigm shift these regulations will represent for competition policy worldwide.
Format: Geoffrey A. Manne will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.
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Douwe Groenevelt - Decoding legal AI. What's real, and what's next?
2025-11-20 12:30 - 13:00
Thursday 20 November 2025, 12.00-13.00
Vrije Universiteit Main building, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam,
Room: 8A00
Decoding Legal AI: what’s real, and what’s next
Lecture followed by Q&A about the future of legal practice in the age of AI
DOUWE GROENEVELT

Founder and CEO Viridea.ai – A lawyer turned technology entrepreneur, trying to reimagine how professionals work, drawing inspiration from 20+ years of experience in professional service
Creator of the short (fully AI generated) movie Barney – The End of Lawyers
Former head legal ASML, former attorney De Brauw

HOSTED by Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute, professor Arno R. Lodder

[event] The Future of Competition Law Research
2025-11-28 13:00 - 17:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Co-organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Description: The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is delighted to co-organize, together with ICLE, a special event dedicated to the Master Thesis Competition in Competition Law. This gathering will showcase the outstanding work of the winners and bring together distinguished members of the jury alongside leading academics in the field. It will be a unique opportunity to engage with cutting-edge research, exchange ideas, and celebrate the next generation of competition law scholars. We warmly invite all interested participants to join us on the VU campus for what promises to be an inspiring and thought-provoking afternoon.
Speakers:

Alison Jones (King’s College London)
Mariateresa Maggiolino (Bocconi University)
Francisco Marcos (IE Law School)
Frédéric Marty (Université Côte d’Azur)
Henri Piffaut (European Commission, DG COMP)
Thibault Schrepel (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Anna Tzanaki (University of Leeds)

Program:
1:00 – 1:15 PM — Welcome & Opening Remarks
Dr. Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor of Law (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
1:15 – 2:00 PM — Award Ceremony
Presentation of the three competition law thesis awards:

Grand Prize – Best Thesis
Most Innovative Thesis
Best Law & Economics Analysis

Each awardee will present their research (10 minutes each).
2:00 – 2:30 PM — Coffee Break
2:30 – 4:00 PM — Perspectives on Competition Law Research
This session focuses on the current state of research in competition law, drawing on the speakers’ own experiences through a series of 10-minute presentations followed by discussion.
Themes will include:

How researchers find their voice and build a distinctive research agenda in competition law
How to balance doctrinal, empirical, and theoretical approaches
The role of quantitative methods in modern competition research
Lessons from supervising master’s or PhD students
How practice and case law can inform theory
The papers that most shaped speakers’ understanding of competition law
What economics can (and cannot) contribute to the field
The importance of academic research for antitrust agencies
The most influential non-competition law works in our field
How mentorship shapes a research trajectory
The role of failure and resilience in academic careers
Why, and when, to publish interdisciplinary competition research

4:00 – 5:00 PM — Panel Discussion: The Future of Competition Law Scholarship
This session focuses on the future of competition law research. It will explore how technology and new institutions will shape the field in the years ahead. The panel will be boderated by Thibault Schrepel.
Themes will include:

Should competition law scholars learn to code?
The role of open data and transparency in tomorrow’s research
How GenAI may transform competition law scholarship
The evolution of academic publishing in the AI era
What role will academic research play in shaping the future of competition law?
The future of interdisciplinary collaboration between law, economics, and data science
The role of human judgment in an increasingly automated research environment
What skills and methods will define the next generation of competition law scholars

REGISTRATION OVER HERE

[event] Frederic Jenny: The Five Crises of Competition Law
2025-12-10 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Speaker: Frédéric Jenny holds a Ph.D in Economics from Harvard University (1975), a Doctorate in Economics from the University of Paris (1977) and an MBA degree from ESSEC Business School (1966). He is Emeritus Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School in Paris and President of the International Committee of Concurrences Review. He is Chairman of the OECD Global Competition Forum, and former Co-Director of the European Center for Law and Economics of ESSEC. He was previously 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, Vice Chair of the French Competition Authority (1993-2004) and President of the WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition (1994-2003). 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). He was Visiting Professor at University College London Law School (2005-2010), Global Professor of Antitrust in the New York University School of Law’s Hauser Global Law School (2014, 2017 and 2022) and Senior Fellow in the Online Global Competition and Consumer Law Masters Program, University of Melbourne (Australia) (2016-2018)
Description: Industrial policy to promote growth through innovation has taken center stage in Europe’s economic policy. What do we know about the economics of innovation and the respective roles of competition and industrial policy in the promotion of innovation? Under which condition could these two policies be complementary?
Format: Frederic Jenny will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.
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[event] Teodora Groza: Governing Foundation Models
2026-03-05 12:00 - 13:00 | VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Teodora Groza is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tübingen. She has obtained a PhD in law from Sciences Po Law School and has held visiting positions at Harvard Law School and Stanford Law School. Her work is underlined by the belief that technological developments need to be paired with governance innovations and investigates the fitness of various legal interventions for ensuring AI alignment. Methodologically, she leverages the toolkit of law and economics, in particular organizational and institutional economics.
She has published on data markets, the governance of AI companies, the role of regulation in promoting innovation, and the impact of new business models on the EU and US antitrust frameworks. She regularly intervenes at academic, civil society, and industry conferences.
Description: Senior executives of frontier AI labs have recently described AI foundation models as either “infrastructures” or “platforms.” Although these terms are often used interchangeably in legal and governance debates, economists distinguish between the effects and incentive structures they generate. This talk examines the role of foundation models in today’s economy and disentangles their platform-like and infrastructure-like characteristics. Building on this distinction, it situates foundation models within the existing regulatory architectures of platforms (e.g. social media, digital marketplaces) and infrastructures (e.g. public utilities). It then analyzes how different governance choices would shape access, competition, and the allocation of regulatory authority.
Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).
Format: Teodora Groza will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.
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[event] Competition and the Wealth of Nations
2026-03-13 09:00 - 17:00 | Rome, Italy
Substance Over Slogans:
Competition and the Wealth of Nations
Please join us for a unique antitrust conference, “Substance Over Slogans: Competition and the Wealth of Nations” on March 13, 2026, at the Palazzo Ripetta in Rome, Italy.
Our aim for this conference is to look past the headlines and oft-politicized arguments that have defined the last several years of competition-policy discourse to examine the current academic foundations of antitrust through a rigorous assessment of the legal and economic state of play—this year with a deliberately multidisciplinary lens that pairs subject-matter experts from adjacent fields with antitrust scholars and practitioners.
The competition-policy landscape is shifting rapidly, and making sense of it now requires a genuinely multidisciplinary vantage point. This year’s conference aims to assemble subject-matter experts from fields as diverse as the AI, cloud, and chips stack; management and productivity; geopolitics and digital sovereignty; venture capital and bankruptcy. By pairing these voices with leading antitrust scholars, we aim to translate external evidence into concrete implications for enforcement, remedies, and process—clarifying, for example, when vertical integration in the AI stack is pro-competitive, how reallocation conditions shape contestability, where industrial policy complements rivalry, and which institutional guardrails best sustain competitive markets over time.
Against this backdrop, our Rome conference will bring together an unparalleled assembly of top academics, influential policymakers, and business experts to discuss the state of the art of economic and legal research and to translate external expertise into concrete implications for enforcement, remedies, and institutional design. Each session features a concise 10–15 minute briefing by a subject-matter expert, followed by a moderated conversation with antitrust discussants.
Our goal is to investigate the current state of antitrust policy, focusing on substance over slogans.
Hosted by:

The International Center for Law & Economics (Geoffrey A. Manne and Dirk Auer)
The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Law & Technology Institute (Thibault Schrepel)
IE Law School Madrid (Francisco Marcos and Lazar Radic)

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:
Dirk Auer (Director of Competition Policy, International Center for Law &Economics & Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Liège)
Gustavo Augusto Freitas de Lima (President, Brazilian Administrative Counsel for Economic Defense (CADE) & Former Assistant Deputy Director of Economic Policy, General Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazil)
David Bosco (Professor, Aix-Marseille University Faculty of Law and Political Science & Director, Center for Economic Law, Aix-Marseille University)
Harry G. Broadman (Principal, WestExec Advisors & Senior Economist, RAND)
Giuseppe Colangelo (Jean Monnet Chair in European Innovation Policy, University of Basilicata & Senior Scholar of Competition Policy, International Center for Law & Economics)
Juliana Oliveira Domingues (Professor of Economic Law and Antitrust, University of São Paulo & Former Attorney General, Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE))
Hon. Douglas H. Ginsburg (Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia & Professor of Law, George Mason University Law School)
Nicola Giocoli (Full Professor of Economics, University of Pisa Faculty of Law)
Andrei Hagiu (Professor of Information Systems, Boston University Questrom School of Business)
M. Todd Henderson (Michael J. Marks Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School)
Herbert Hovenkamp (James G. Dinan University Professor, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School)
Frédéric Jenny (Emeritus Professor of Economics, ESSEC Business School & Former Vice President, French Competition Authority)
Thomas A. Lambert (Wall Chair in Corporate Law and Governance, University of Missouri School of Law)
Maria Maciá (Associate Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School)
Mariateresa Maggiolino (Full Professor of Economic Law, Università Bocconi)
Geoffrey A. Manne (President & Founder, International Center for Law & Economics & Visiting Professor of Law, IE University)
Francisco Marcos (Professor of Law, IE University Law School)
A. Douglas Melamed (Visiting Fellow, Stanford Law School & Scholar in Residence, USC Gould School of Law)
Eduardo Pérez Motta (Founding Partner, Pérez Motta Estrada & Former President, Mexican Federal Competition Commission)
Randal C. Picker (James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School)
Lazar Radic (Assistant Professor of Law, IE University Law School & Senior Scholar of Competition Policy, International Center for Law & Economics)
Pierre Régibeau (Competition Expert, Analysis Group & Former Chief Economist, EU Commission Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP))
Thibault Schrepel (Associate Professor of Law, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & Faculty Affiliate, Stanford University CodeX Center)
Eric Seufert (General Partner, Heracles Capital & Analyst and Podcast Host, Mobile Dev Memo)
Lauren Wagner (Fellow, Abundance Institute)
Koren W. Wong-Ervin (Partner, Jones Day & Former Counsel for Intellectual Property & International Antitrust, U.S. Federal Trade Commission)
Elena Yndurain (Professor, IE Business School & Director, AI Project Management, Microsoft)
REGISTRATION:
Right here
