The Competition Law & Artificial Intelligence Summit

Karen Croxson joined the CMA in September 2023 and was appointed as its first Chief Data, Technology and Insight Officer on 2 April 2024.

Karen is a member of the Senior Executive Team and oversees all the CMA’s work related to data, technology and analytics including Artificial Intelligence. This includes analysis of emerging technologies, how these shape markets, and the implications for consumers and competition, as well as the CMA’s digital transformation, harnessing data, technology and analytics to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the CMA’s work.

Cristina Volpin is a Competition Policy Expert at the OECD in Paris.

She is currently on loan to the European Commission’s DG Competition, working on AI and digital matters and competition. At the OECD, she conducts research and publishes studies, including with a focus on competition enforcement and sustainability, the circular economy, labour markets, and innovation. She also works on in-country projects and delivers training to competition authorities and judges. She previously worked as a lawyer in two top-tier Italian law firms (Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners, and Chiomenti) and as an associate lecturer in competition law at Queen Mary University of London. Cristina obtained a Ph.D. in EU Competition Law from the University of Padua and completed a postgraduate course on Business Sustainability Management from the University of Cambridge. She is an Advisory Board Member at the Centre for Business Law and Practice, University of Leeds, and a Senior Fellow at George Washington University for competition and innovation.

Tamara Todorovic is a Director of Competition Enforcement at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

At the CMA, she primarily works on civil cartel investigations and has joint responsibility for the CMA’s leniency policy. Prior to joining the CMA, Tamara worked as a competition lawyer in private practice and spent time on secondment at the UK Government, advising on competition law and policy.

Jenine heads Weil’s European antitrust practice.  She has advised on some of the most high-profile and complex M&A transactions of the past decade, securing Phase 2 clearances from both the European Commission and CMA.  With a particular focus on the technology, pharmaceutical and energy sectors, she has represented corporations on a wide range of behavioural antitrust matters, as well as on competition appeals and litigation.  Jenine is recognised as a leading competition lawyer in Chambers Global, Europe and UK, is included in the “Hall of Fame” in Legal 500 with a “stellar market reputation” and was listed as one of the leading “Women in Antitrust 2021” by Global Competition Review.

Davina Garrod is recognized by Legal 500 for her “encyclopedic understanding of competition and merger control laws” and her “in-depth understanding of the regulatory landscape in markets.” She advises multinationals, corporates, financial institutions and trade associations on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and restructurings.

With more than 24 years’ experience, in addition to conducting multijurisdictional merger control analyses, navigating and obtaining antitrust and regulatory approvals for complex transactions within and outside of the EU, and negotiating remedies packages, Davina represents leading sovereign wealth funds, private equity (PE) firms, global institutional asset managers and banks in the context of their strategic and financial investments (transactional and contentious).

During her secondment to a global financial institution, Davina led on antitrust and regulatory investigations. She has worked in Washington, D.C., where she represented technology, defence, shipping and pharmaceutical/life sciences companies on significant strategic transactions, produced an econometric study in the context of parallel United States/EU antitrust litigation and participated in International Competition Network merger control projects. She has also worked in Brussels and has been seconded to the UK communications regulator, where she worked on merger investigations and wrote the government’s study into digital TV and analogue switch-over.

Chambers UK commends Ms. Garrod for expressing “complex analysis in a commercial manner” for being “very knowledgeable and efficient” and “good at coordinating large amounts of data.” She is highlighted as an “excellent choice for clients.”

Prof. Dr. Thomas Höppner is a Competition Lawyer and Partner at Hausfeld, advising on all areas of antitrust law, economic regulation and intellectual property. His practice covers the full range of contentious and non-contentious competition law matters, including related regulatory areas such as media, telecommunications and artificial intelligence. 

Konstantina is a Partner at Geradin Partners. Before joining the firm, Konstantina was Senior Legal Counsel at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

While at the EBU, Konstantina acquired significant experience in a wide range of matters that concern audiovisual markets and the platform economy. She led two expert groups that focus on online platform regulation, the reform of competition rules to make them fit for digital markets, and the funding and remit of public service media.

Konstantina has worked extensively on antitrust issues arising from the acquisition of premium content, unilateral platform practices, State aid control in the broadcasting sector, and regulatory matters concerning the distribution of media content. She has guided the EBU’s work on the platform-to-business Regulation and the Digital Markets Act proposal, regularly engaging with EU policymakers in those areas.

Konstantina is also a lecturer at the University of Sheffield and an extramural fellow at the Tilburg Law and Economics Centre. In 2020, she was appointed to a scientific council to advise the Greek government on data policy issues.

Konstantina holds a PhD from the European University Institute (EUI). Her dissertation, which explores the role of media pluralism in the enforcement of EU competition law, received the 2016 Concurrences PhD thesis award (an annual Europe-wide competition aimed at selecting the most innovative thesis in the field of law and economics). She publishes regularly in her areas of expertise and she has received prizes and fellowships from numerous institutions, including the Academic Society for Competition Law, the Fulbright Commission, the Competition Law Scholars Forum, and the Institute for European Studies. She has been a guest lecturer at various leading institutions, such as the EUI, Queen Mary University, the University of Lausanne, and Bocconi University.

Konstantina is a native Greek and speaks English, Italian, Spanish and French. She is qualified in Greece.

Francesco Liberatore advises clients on all aspects of the application of competition law, in particular in technology driven and digital economy sectors. His experience also focusses on communications law and he coordinates the firm’s EMEA Communications Practice.

He regularly represents clients in investigations before regulatory and competition authorities, as well as managing internal investigations, dawn raids and counseling on compliance issues and various commercial agreements. Francesco handles merger control due diligence and filings, as well as coordinating multijurisdictional merger control strategies. He also advises private equity investors, banks and other financial investors on arbitrage opportunities. Francesco’s litigation experience includes representing clients in matters before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the High Court of Justice and the European Courts.

Francesco is dual qualified in England/Wales and Italy. He has authored several legal publications, including the International Telecommunications Law Handbook (Juris Publishing) and the EU Electronic Communications Code Handbook (Bloomsbury Professional), and is a contributing author to the LexisPSL TMT Practice Note on Radio Spectrum Regulation. He is also a regular speaker on topical issues affecting digital markets, including on AI.

Francesco has been named among the top 10 most influential competition lawyers in the digital markets and communications sector in the UK by an independent review (Business Review). He is also recommended as a leading practitioner in Chambers & Partners, The Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal. Clients describe him as “thoroughly efficient and helpful throughout”, “a true master of telecoms law”, “a delight to work with”, “very good – very knowledgeable and responsive”, “provides timely advice in a practical and risk-based manner” and “really stands out as a brilliant lawyer, who is always dedicated to his client's cause”. Following outstanding client feedback, he was named as a star lawyer in the Acritas StarsTM global database: Francesco is praised by clients for “the regulatory advice that he provides to us. He appears to have good relationships with the regulators and his advice has enabled us to achieve our business outcomes”.

Rikki Haria is a partner in the Antitrust, Competition and Trade group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.

His practice spans the full range of competition law matters, including merger control and foreign investment reviews, antitrust investigations and market inquiries.

As a member of the firm’s global tech practice and having spent time working in Silicon Valley, Rikki advises a broad range of tech and digital platform businesses, including on merger reviews, regulatory investigations, and the interplay between antitrust, data privacy and consumer protection laws. He also has a particular focus on the telecoms, financial services, retail and consumer products sectors, having advised on various mergers, market studies and market investigations in these sectors.

Rikki helps clients to navigate complex regulatory environments, including behavioural investigations, new digital regulation (such as the EU Digital Markets Act and forthcoming UK regulatory regime) and new and emerging technologies (such as artificial intelligence and the metaverse). He also regularly advises on high-profile and cross-border M&A, managing the process of securing merger control and foreign investment clearances around the world. Notable examples include Adobe/Figma, MasMovil/Orange, Tesco/Booker and Apollo/Verizon.

Rikki has extensive experience before the CMA and European Commission, including through his time on secondment to the CMA’s mergers unit.

Nicole Kar is global co-chair of the Antitrust Practice. She advises on global merger investigations from an antitrust and foreign investment standpoint and has led over 40 significant merger reviews before the UK and European authorities; as well as advising on cartel, abuse of dominance and consumer law investigations and consequential litigation, particularly in the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal; compliance issues; and self-reporting to financial and other regulators.

Nicole has significant experience advising private equity houses and financial sponsors on a range of competition law issues, in particular in relation to liability flowing from portfolio companies and investments.

Verity is a counsel in Linklaters’ London Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group and co-head of the UK technology sector team.

Verity has over a decade of experience across advisory, investigatory and transactional aspects of competition law in the EU and the UK, including on vertical and abuse of dominance issues. She is particularly familiar with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, having spent time on secondment to the CMA’s mergers group, during which she sat on the CMA’s Mergers Intelligence Committee. 

Ashwin focuses on contentious antitrust matters – abuse of dominance and restrictive agreements – as well as regulation in the technology sector. He has represented clients such as Nokia, GE, Samsung, Epic Games, and Oracle.

Ashwin has secured wins for clients accused of abuse of dominance on six occasions – in one instance after issuance of a Statement of Objections – and helped to negotiate commitments in the remaining two cases. He is equally active on the complainant side, currently advising multiple clients in separate abuse of dominance proceedings. Ashwin also advises (prospective) gatekeepers as well as third parties on implications of the Digital Markets Act.

Ashwin’s practice covers key issues in technology markets, including: (i) standard essential patents, (ii) standard-setting agreements, (iii) refusal to supply and refusal to license, (iv) interoperability, (v) aftermarkets, (vi) tying, (vii) data, and (viii) vertical restraints in licensing and distribution agreements.

Ashwin previously worked as a software engineer in California and the Netherlands, and relies on his tech background to advise his clients and understand their business.

Ingrid Vandenborre is the partner in charge of Skadden’s Brussels office and co-head of Skadden’s European Antitrust/Competition practice. Her practice focuses on EU and international merger control and competition law enforcement.

Ms. Vandenborre has been consistently named as a leading practitioner in Who’s Who Legal guides in both competition and life sciences, as well as repeatedly in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe and The Legal 500 EMEA. In 2023, she was named Antitrust & Competition Lawyer of the Year at the Women in Business Law EMEA Awards. Ms. Vandenborre also was named Lawyer of the Year by Global Competition Review in 2022, was selected to GCR’s Women in Antitrust list in 2021 and was recognized for her representation of Aspen Pharmacare in relation to the European Commission’s (EC) Article 102 investigation of the company’s pricing practices, which was named European Behavioural Matter of the Year by the publication. In addition, she was named a 2021 Competition MVP by Law360, a 2021 Litigation Star for Belgium - Competition/Antitrust by Benchmark Litigation Europe and Competition Lawyer of the Year at Benchmark Litigation Europe’s 2020 Awards, which also recognized her work advising Aspen as an Impact Case of the Year. She currently serves as nongovernmental adviser to the intergovernmental International Competition Network.

Ian Giles is an antitrust, competition and regulatory lawyer working from our London and Brussels offices.  He has been involved in a number of significant cases in recent years across the spectrum of competition law, including: securing approvals for major transactions; representing clients in high-profile market and competition investigations; and advising on disputes in respect of competition, regulatory and trade law.

Ian is ranked as a Leading Individual in Chambers, The Legal 500, and Who's Who Legal, with Chambers describing him as "a great lawyer, someone who's very responsive, practical and thoughtful. He's very focused on trying to find solutions."  He is also recognized for his "excellent legal skills" and "creative thinking", as well as being "extremely responsive", and having an "astute and methodical approach". 

Ian worked in a senior role as a competition enforcer at the UK Office of Fair Trading in 2008-9, and the insights he gained from this time are particularly valuable in his work.  He is a frequent speaker and media commentator on competition issues, and author of various competition law academic works.  Ian is also a leading member of the UK ICC Competition Group and the City of London Law Society Competition Group. 

Minesh is a Partner at Simmons & Simmons specialising in tech disputes. He is also the firm’s Global AI Lead and is an industry-recognised leader in AI law.

Minesh is Chair of the Society for Computers and Law (SCL) AI Group and Chair of the City of London Law Society (CLLS) AI Committee, he is a contributing author to Artificial Intelligence Law and Regulation (Elgar, 2022), Artificial Intelligence in Finance (Elgar, 2023) and The Law of Artificial Intelligence (Sweet & Maxwell, forthcoming), and a regular speaker, lecturer and media commentator on AI law.

As well as regularly advising clients (including governments) on legal, regulatory and ethical issues relating to AI, Minesh has been involved in ground-breaking work on AI governance, which has been shortlisted for multiple awards.

Minesh has been listed as a “Global Market Leader” in AI by Chambers (2024).

As a competition law specialist, partner Marjolein De Backer practices in the areas of EU and Belgian competition law as well as foreign direct investment.

Marjolein practices in the areas of EU and Belgian competition law. She has over 15 years of experience advising on merger control, competition investigations and sector inquiries, and state aid. Marjolein also advises on foreign direct investment and national security control as well as competition law related questions in the fields of ESG, patent licensing, and routes to market. Marjolein has represented clients before the EU, UK and Belgian competition authorities and courts. She is qualified in Belgium and New York and registered as a foreign lawyer in the UK.

Marjolein has worked for multinationals across different sectors including, energy and commodities, financial services, manufacturing, media, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, technology and the internet of things, and transport and logistics.

Omar Shah represents clients in complex global merger control transactions and cartel investigations as well as antitrust litigation and investigations, particularly those involving the intersection of competition law with intellectual property as well as media/communications, pharmaceutical, transport, financial services, and data privacy regulations. Omar represents clients before UK, EU, and other competition authorities, courts, and tribunals and in commercial and regulatory litigation proceedings, including judicial reviews. Chambers UK has described him as a “smart and outstanding lawyer who is a true global player" as well as a “charming and effective partner who instantly wins the client's confidence and respect."

Jordan is a competition, consumer and regulatory specialist based in our Brussels office. He represents clients before global, European and UK competition authorities, courts and sectoral regulators.

Jordon’s experience includes advising in technology and media, life science and pharmaceuticals, financial sector, consumer sectors and industrial sectors.

Jordan also advises various companies in relation to European Commission cartel investigations.

Jordan is listed as a leading individual for Competition Law in Chambers Belgium, 2021. Jordan is co-author of the American Bar Association’s Tech Treatise.

Katie is a Partner based in RBB’s London office. She has twenty years’ experience working as a competition economist across a broad range of matters including mergers, litigation, Competition Act investigations and market studies. A former Economics Director at
Ofcom, she has significant regulatory expertise and a deep understanding of telecoms and digital markets.
An experienced testifying expert, Katie has given evidence in various courts including the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Previously the Head of Econometrics at the Office of Fair Trading (a predecessor of the UK Competition and Markets Authority), Katie has significant expertise in the application of quantitative techniques to competition policy questions.

Diogo Pereira is an Associate General Counsel in Meta’s EMEA Competition Legal team advising the company on all aspects of competition law, with a focus on conduct issues and digital markets regulation. Prior to joining Meta, Diogo spent eight years at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Brussels and in London advising clients on all aspects of EU and UK competition law, and on utilities regulation. He has an LLM from the London School of Economics. 

Professor Kai-Uwe Kühn is an economist who has almost thirty years of experience advising private firms and competition authorities on merger, antitrust, state aid and regulatory and damages cases, as well as competition policy in general.

Ronan Scanlan has over 15 years' experience in antitrust and competition law, policy and practice, with a focus on merger control, abuse of dominance, antitrust investigations and litigation.

He has previously served as Deputy Director in the Competition and Markets Authority in London, during which time he led high-profile merger investigations (with a focus on the telecoms space, including BT Group's proposed acquisition of EE Limited and Hutchison 3G UK's proposed acquisition of Telefonica O2 UK Limited) and dawn raids on behalf of that authority (including in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors). During his time with the CMA, he worked closely with the European Commission on both merger and conduct investigations. His international experience in competition law, enforcement and capability building includes time in China (working with MOFCOM), on secondment to a law firm in India, and working at the competition authority in Ireland. Prior to joining Steptoe, Ronan worked at a leading Irish law firm, where he advised on European, Irish, and UK antitrust and merger control, and foreign direct investment (FDI) issues, including for Applegreen, Blackstone, Corio, CRH, DFDS, EQT, Orsted, Ryanair, Tesla and TPG.

He holds a master's degree from King's College London in EU Competition Law and, since 2020, has been named as a 'Rising Star' in Legal 500. He is recommended by and recognized as a 'next-generation leader' in Who's Who Legal.

Ronan regularly publishes articles in leading journals including the Competition Law Journal, Concurrences, the European Competition Law Journal, the International Law Office, and Kluwer Competition Law. He also speaks at conferences on EU and UK antitrust and merger control matters including those organised by Informa and ThoughtLeaders4Competition. He is recognized as a leading authority on EU and UK competition law and has been quoted in leading global publications including the Financial Times, the Global Competition Review, Reuters, and S&P Global. He is a member of the International Bar Association's 'Unilateral Conduct Working Group' and regularly makes submissions globally for the IBA on best practices in the regulation of unilateral conduct; in particular, in the digital space.

Tim is a Director in the ICO Legal Service. He is responsible for providing legal advice across a range of the ICO’s work, including in relation to the regulation of digital markets. Tim was previously a Legal Director at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), having been a senior associate in the Competition team at international law firm, Hogan Lovells.

During his time at the CMA, Tim led legal teams advising on a range of competition and merger investigations and policy projects, including the development of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill.

Shula is Associate General Counsel, EU Policy & Compliance at DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo is an independent Internet privacy company that helps consumers stay more private online. DuckDuckGo has been competing in the general search market since 2008 and is currently the 3rd largest OSE in UK. Our flagship product experience is our free browser that comes with seamless privacy protection built-in, including our private search engine. DuckDuckGo does not track or profile its users. This means we have no way to create a history of a user's search queries or the sites they browse and viewing search results on DuckDuckGo is anonymous.

Shula leads DuckDuckGo’s European, UK and ROW competition policy and regulatory compliance work, advising DuckDuckGo on implementation and enforcement of the EU’s Digital Markets Act and the UK’s Digital Markets Competition and Consumer Act. Prior to working at DuckDuckGo, Shula was Director of Regulatory Affairs at Lime, the global micromobility company.

Oliver Latham has worked on digital mergers including Amazon/Deliveroo, Amazon/iRobot, Microsoft/LinkedIn, Microsoft/GitHub, Microsoft/ZeniMax, Microsoft/Xandr, Microsoft/Nuance, PayPal/iZettle, PayPal/Honey, Taboola/Outbrain, Visa/Plaid, Visa/Tink, Uber/Yandex, Uber/Grab, Uber/Careem, Uber/Postmates and Uber/Cornershop). His antitrust and regulatory work includes providing economic analysis to Amazon, Microsoft, ByteDance and Visa and he has also advised complainants in relation to the Google Android, Shopping and Ad Tech cases. He also works on antitrust litigation including on claims brought against Google and Meta. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has published on economic issues in outlets including the Economic Journal, Competition Policy International, European Competition Journal and Sunday Times