The ICN’s 12th Birthday – What’s New?

CPI ICN Column edited by Maria Coppola (U.S. Federal Trade Commission)

The ICN’s 12th Birthday – What’s New? – Andreas Mundt (President, Bundeskartellamt)

Autumn is a very busy time of year for ICN Members. It is when the Working Groups start dedicating their attention more closely to the work products they have planned to complete in the current ICN year. This year the ICN Working Groups have decided to host a number of global and regional workshops and teleseminars, and to draft reports, practical “hands-on” chapters for agency manuals and guidance documents. All are valuable work products that will foster cooperation and convergence between competition authorities worldwide.

Each new ICN year begins after the Annual Conference and ends with the Annual Conference of the following year. The work plans are drafted in spring by the individual ICN Working Groups and are adopted by the Steering Group. Summer sees the Working Groups doing preparatory work. ICN members, however, are traditionally most busy from autumn through to spring until the next Annual Conference.

This year, however, the new work projects are not the only new issue ICN members have to adapt to. In September 2013 a new leadership took office. Together with the two Vice-Chairs Bruno Lassere, President of the French Autorité de la concurrence, and Vinicius Marques de Carvalho, President of the Brasilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense, I took over the position of