#271 What Does the UN Do For Consumers? UNCTAD’s Role in Promoting Competition and Consumer Protection
Release Date: 04/29/2024
#274 What's Happening in Hong Kong and Japan? Catching Up With International Enforcers at the 2024 Spring Meeting
Our Curious Amalgam
In April 2024, the Our Curious Amalgam team interviewed international competition law regulators while on site at the ABA Antitrust Law Section's Annual Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. In this episode, Anora Wang talks to Samuel Chan, Chairman of the Hong Kong Competition Commission, and Commissioner Reiko Aoki of the Japan Fair Trade Commission. Listen to what they had to say about their respective agencies' major achievements of the past year and current and future enforcement priorities, while also getting to know them a little better as people. With special guests: Samuel Chan, BBS, JP,...
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#273 What’s Happening in France, Portugal, and Poland? Catching Up With International Enforcers at the 2024 Spring Meeting
Our Curious Amalgam
The 2024 edition of the ABA Antitrust Law Section’s Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C., offered the Our Curious Amalgam team a chance to speak with competition law regulators from around the world. While on site at the meeting, we sat down with several of them to discuss their enforcement priorities and other issues, while also getting to know them a little better as people. This episode features interviews conducted by three of our OCA hosts. First, Anora Wang discovers what's happening in France with Benoît Cœuré, the president of the French Competition Authority. Next, Jeny Maier...
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#272 What’s Happening in the EU? A Conversation With DG COMP Director-General Olivier Guersent at the 2024 Spring Meeting
Our Curious Amalgam
The 2024 Spring Meeting of the ABA Antitrust Law Section offered the Our Curious Amalgam team a chance to speak with competition law enforcers from around the world. In this episode, host Matthew Hall asks Olivier Guersent, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission (DG COMP), about what’s been happening in the European Union since we interviewed him at the 2023 Spring Meeting. Listen and learn about DG COMP’s current and recent work and what competition law policy and enforcement trends the Director-General sees on the horizon. With special...
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#271 What Does the UN Do For Consumers? UNCTAD’s Role in Promoting Competition and Consumer Protection
Our Curious Amalgam
The UN General Assembly has entrusted UNCTAD (now rebranded as UN Trade and Development) to be the focal point within the UN on competition and consumer protection issues. How does UN Trade and Development implement this role? Teresa Moreira, Head of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch (CCPB) at UN Trade and Development, joins Alicia Downey and Matthew Hall to discuss the work of the CCPB, including its focus on developing countries and its working groups and specific projects. Listen to this episode to learn more about UN Trade and Development's work promoting, reinforcing and...
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#270 Want To Be an Antitrust Scholar? Meet the ABA’s International Scholar-in-Residence
Our Curious Amalgam
Many practitioners wonder what it would be like to be an academic, diving deeply into the leading international legal and policy issues at the forefront of antitrust and competition law. But what does an academic researcher do all day? Natalia Moreno Belloso, one of the ABA Antitrust Law Section's International Scholars-in-Residence, joins Jeny Maier and Anora Wang to discuss her research on conflicts between competition values and non-competition values in digital markets. Listen to this episode if you want to learn more about the life of an academic researcher and the latest trends in...
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#269 What’s New in Antitrust and Tech? Unpacking United States v. Apple
Our Curious Amalgam
On March 21, 2024, the United States Department of Justice and sixteen Attorneys General sued Apple, alleging that “Apple undermines apps, products, and services that would otherwise make users less reliant on the iPhone, promote interoperability, and lower costs for consumers and developers.” In other words, many of the DOJ and AGs’ allegations boil down to lock in - that is that the features chosen by Apple lock in developers and users to stay in Apple’s ecosystem by making it harder to switch or jump between platforms. We discuss the case and the claims advanced, and what it might...
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#268 Bringing Big Tech to Heel? Compliance Day Under the EU Digital Markets Act
Our Curious Amalgam
The EU Digital Markets Act introduces a radical change to regulation of the digital sector in the EU. But what does it require and what have the designated "gatekeepers" been doing to ensure compliance? Aleksandra Zuchowska, Competition Policy Manager at CCIA in Brussels, appearing in her personal capacity, joins Matthew Reynolds and Matthew Hall to discuss the DMA and its impact. Listen to this episode to learn more about the principles underpinning the DMA, its requirements, the compliance steps being taken, the act's impact on choice, innovation and online safety, the compliance...
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#267 Dial L for Liability? Evolving Restrictions on Telemarketing to Consumers
Our Curious Amalgam
Anyone with a phone number understands how annoying it is to receive unsolicited promotional voice calls and text messages. For that reason, telemarketing and telephone sales practices in the U.S. are regulated by decades-old federal and state consumer protection laws, which permit private rights of action by consumers for minimum statutory damages that can total hundreds of dollars per violation, such as when a call or text is made to a phone number listed on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. But are these laws too harsh on legitimate businesses communicating with their customers? How well...
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#266 Is It Time To Burst the Bubble? Antitrust Law in the Age of the Polycrisis
Our Curious Amalgam
The antitrust law bubble, particularly in the U.S., has in recent years focussed on the mantra of promoting efficiency above all else. In the age of the global polycrisis and increasing corporate concentration and power in numerous sectors, should this bubble be popped? Dr Cristina Caffarra, leading competition economist, joins Barry Nigro and Matthew Hall to discuss the wider issues antitrust and competition law enforcement should be considering, which was the focus of a January 2024 Brussels conference described as the "Anti-Davos" and "Woodstock of Antitrust". Listen to this episode to...
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#265 Can I Avoid Targeted Ads? The EU Rules on Pay or OK
Our Curious Amalgam
Many companies already use or are introducing "pay or OK" models for targeted ads on the Internet. What legal issues does this raise in the EU? Frithjof Michaelsen, Digital Policy Officer at UFC-Que Choisir, the French Federation of Consumer Associations, joins Matthew Reynolds and Matthew Hall to discuss Meta's introduction of pay or OK, otherwise known as pay or consent, on its Facebook and Instagram platforms in the EU, the relevant law and the implications of this for the wider adtech ecosystem. Listen to this episode to learn more about the application of EU consumer and data protection...
info_outlineThe UN General Assembly has entrusted UNCTAD (now rebranded as UN Trade and Development) to be the focal point within the UN on competition and consumer protection issues. How does UN Trade and Development implement this role? Teresa Moreira, Head of the Competition and Consumer Policies Branch (CCPB) at UN Trade and Development, joins Alicia Downey and Matthew Hall to discuss the work of the CCPB, including its focus on developing countries and its working groups and specific projects. Listen to this episode to learn more about UN Trade and Development's work promoting, reinforcing and advising on competition and consumer protection law and policies in support of its overall goal to help developing countries meet the Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN General Assembly in 2015.
With special guest:
Teresa Moreira, Head, Competition and Consumer Policies Branch, United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Related Links:
Competition and Consumer Protection Branch website
Global competition law and policy approaches to digital markets (March 2024)
Consumer dispute resolution in the world (March 2024)
UNCTAD model law on competition after 30 years: some reflections (Feb 2024)
Hosted by:
Alicia Downey, Downey Law LLC and Matthew Hall, McGuireWoods London LLP