Workshop on Effective Competition in Network Industries

International workshop on competition issues in network industries

On 27 and 28 May 2010, Prof. Dr. Georg Götz, holder of the Chair of Industrial Organization, Regulation and Antitrust hosted an interdisciplinary workshop on competition in network industries. Academics and practitioners from Germany and abroad accepted the invitation to discuss this topic which is central to European and national legislation. 

In his opening lecture, Prof. Dr. Stephen Littlechild, Emeritus of the University of Birmingham and Fellow at the Cambridge Judge Business School, reported on his wealth of experience gained in several decades of academic work and as a member of numerous government commissions in Great Britain. He pleaded for more confidence in the power of competition and less state regulatory intervention to establish it. Experience has shown that well-intentioned interventions often have the opposite effect.

An exciting panel discussion on regulatory practice and the competitive situation in the rail and telecommunications industry featured the Vice President of the Federal Network Agency, Dr. Iris Henseler-Unger, the Chairman of the German Monopolies Commission, Prof. Dr. Justus Haucap, as well as the Head of "Competition and Regulation" of Deutsche Bahn, Frank Miram, and the Senior Vice President for National Regulatory Affairs of Deutsche Telekom, Dr. Frank Schmidt. In addition to the above and other speakers, scientists and company representatives took part in the workshop. 

The workshop took place within the framework of two third-party funded projects which the professorship is running in cooperation with Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom. These projects serve to analyse the effects of regulation in the railway and telecommunications industries. Under the direction of Prof. Götz these projects are mainly carried out by Dipl. Vw. Christian Bender and Dipl. Vw. Benjamin Pakula in the context of dissertations.