Should Wealth and Income Inequality be a Competition Law Concern?

Economic inequality is steadily increasing. ACELG and ACLE are jointly convening an online conference discussing whether differences in how much people own and earn should be a concern for competition law.

About
Economic inequality is on the rise around the world. The gap between rich and poor has been widening steadily, with the COVID-19 pandemic further reinforcing the trend. Differences in how much people own and earn have become so pronounced that they are causing a serious economic, political and moral concern. As a result, academics, policy makers and politicians have been asking what generates these differences and how they could be curbed. A major source of wealth and income inequality appears to be the immense economic power enjoyed by large multinational corporations. Against this backdrop, prominent scholars have argued that a more equal society could be ensured through enforcement of competition rules, not least in labour markets. Yet, the precise extent to which competition law can and should be concerned with distributive issues remains unclear.

You can now register for our conference, where this problem will be discussed from multiple perspectives.

The conference will include:

A keynote by Eleanor Fox (New York University, United States)

A discussion panel moderated by Anna Gerbrandy (Utrecht University) and featuring:

Cani Fernández (National Commission on Markets and Competition, Spain)

Ioannis Lianos (Hellenic Competition Commission, Greece)

Teresa Moreira (UNCTAD, France)

Martijn Snoep (Authority for Consumers and Markets, Netherlands)

Programme

Full programme here.

Practicalities

This conference will take place online. Please register online if you would like to join this conference.

About the ACELG
The Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) was established as a Faculty of Law Centre of Excellence in 2009. Since then it has been nationally and internationally recognized as a research centre that makes high level contributions to the academic and policy debate on legal and governance processes in Europe.

About the ACLE
The Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics (ACLE) is a joint initiative of the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam. The objective of the ACLE is to promote high-quality interdisciplinary research at the intersection between law and economics.