{"id":11415,"date":"2026-03-16T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/?p=11415"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:27:08","slug":"conference-debriefing-49-ikk2026-international-competition-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.d-kart.de\/en\/blog\/2026\/03\/16\/conference-debriefing-49-ikk2026-international-competition-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Conference Debriefing (49): IKK2026 \u2013 International Competition Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lufthansa on strike, international aviation restricted, petrol prices sky-rocketing: The business community tried a lot to keep the competition community from meeting in Berlin in mid-March. But when Andreas Mundt and the Bundeskartellamt work their magic still everyone comes \u2013 including our very own Rupprecht Podszun. Here is his Conference Debriefing from the International Competition Conference 2026, the IKK!<\/em><\/p>\n

Name of Conference:<\/strong> 23rd<\/sup> International Competition Conference, known as \u201cIKK\u201d for its German acronym.<\/p>\n

Host:<\/strong> The Bundeskartellamt with President Andreas Mundt, his deputy Konrad Ost \u2013 and Barbara Schulze, head of the international unit and a household name for awesome conference organisation.<\/p>\n

Locations:<\/strong> Nolle, of course, the legendary place where it always kicks off with Andreas Mundt standing on a wobbly chair to welcome the crowd; Steigenberger hotel, nicely located between Berlin\u2019s central station and the German Chancellery; and AXICA, a Frank Gehry building next to the Brandenburg Gate. Gala dinner there must have felt like coming home for some of the antitrust lawyers from the D\u00fcsseldorf bar working in Gehry buildings!<\/p>\n

Audience:<\/strong> Some 400 people, the list of participants ranges from Florence Abebe (Nigerian competition commission) to Andreas Zuber (Verband der kommunalen Unternehmen). It\u2019s the mix of the German competition bubble with international enforcers and academics. At Nolle, I sat with Ljiljana Pavlic from the Croatian agency, Austrian economist Doris Hildebrand, senior judge Anne-Christine Frister and Johannes Keim from the German Ministry of Economics. Across the room, I spotted my D\u00fcsseldorf colleague Christian Kersting chatting with Hengeler\u2019s Sarah Milde. The German top cartel senate was represented by three women named Ulrike: Ulrike Picker, Ulrike Holzinger and Ulrike Pastohr. (Seems that Ulrike is the female Thomas.) Wolfgang Kirchhoff was there, of course, their former chief justice, Damien Gerard of the Belgian competition watchdog, Ulrike (!) Suchsland, an industry lobbyist. I also saw Ulrich Egger (presiding judge at the D\u00fcsseldorfer Higher Regional Court) and Ulrich M\u00fcller from Rebalance Now.<\/p>\n

\"Look<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s now move to Questions & Answers with Rupprecht Podszun:<\/h2>\n

Q: Great topics, a star-studded programme! <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Indeed. It is not the usual thing that the antitrust bubble is visited by the President of the Bundesverfassungsgericht, Germany\u2019s celebrated constitutional court. Many were also eagerly awaiting the speech by Executive Vice President Teresa Ribera. One of the Super Marios was there, and a manager with a \u20ac 14 million paycheck in 2025. There were at least two fantastic panels, two mind-boggling speeches from industry representatives, and a lot of food for thought from the guests of honour.<\/p>\n

Q: Tell me more about Teresa Ribera, haven\u2019t seen her on all channels yet!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She has not announced that Google Ads will be divested (as I had secretly hoped), and she was very mild on national activities (such as Italy\u2019s WhatsApp probe or Germany\u2019s Amazon one) eating into the Commission\u2019s push for harmonisation. She made it clear that she sees competition policy \u201cat the service of society\u201d: \u201cPower, resilience, democracy, all this is connected to competition, now more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Teresa<\/p>\n

Q: Phew, I want to see that formula in a merger case!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

No worries: \u201cWe can reach out, but not overreach\u201d, she said. Commission people confirm that she has started to love her competition portfolio. In her talk with Natalie Harsdorf from the Austrian Bundeswettbewerbsbeh\u00f6rde I think I understood her stance: As you know, she was a minister for environmental issues in Spain, and climate change and the transformation of the economy are still close to her heart. I think that she has entered the field of competition with this in mind: That the European economy is undergoing a dramatic transformation, and that competition and market-oriented solutions are the way to go. When Ribera left, the thoughtful Thomas Deisenhofer was the Commission\u2019s top representative at the conference.<\/p>\n

Q: So, I guess everyone was uplifted by another formidable IKK-event?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not quite. Most of the panels and talks had doomsday vibes, but probably different stakeholders felt it for different reasons. Competition law purists learned that we are no longer doing this for protecting competition, but for protecting resilience, democracy, competitiveness, you name it. Big Tech learned that there is no good argument in defence of an extractive oligopoly. And everyone learned that the German economy is going down the abyss.<\/p>\n

Q: Come on, it was not that bad, was it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even worse. Geopolitics is the elephant in the room, of course. No US official made it to Berlin, there was a pre-recorded video message. You may remember that the end of Gail Slater\u2019s tenure as Antitrust Assistant Attorney General also had to do with her travelling to an OECD meeting without permission \u2013 with permission being denied while she was already on the plane. Things are not made easier when Europe is lagging behind, economically. In the panel, dedicated to these topics Tomasz Chr\u00f3stny from Poland\u2019s UOKIK spoke powerfully about the EU with its 450 million people. Veronika Grimm, an influential German economist (I spotted her over lunch with legendary economist Martin Hellwig), recommended to have more Erasmus partnerships with China. Our students, so she argued, need to learn from the leaders.<\/p>\n