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Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will participate in the 12th Annual International Competition Network (ICN) conference in Warsaw, Poland, from April 24-26, 2013.  At the conference, senior government antitrust officials from around the world, private-sector antitrust experts and representatives of intergovernmental organizations will meet to discuss key competition issues and recent ICN work in the areas of agency effectiveness, mergers, unilateral conduct, cartels and advocacy, as well as enforcement cooperation and working with courts and judges.

Conference panels will discuss effective competition advocacy, economic analysis in merger review, exclusive dealing arrangements, investigative process in antitrust enforcement, and international cooperation in anti-cartel enforcement.  Member agencies also will finalize work programs for the upcoming year and engage in long-term planning.

At the conference, Chairwoman Ramirez will participate in the Special Project Plenary, an initiative analyzing the interaction between national competition authorities and courts.  She will deliver presentations on the various tools competition agencies have to assist courts in recognizing the importance of competition principles and ways to present complex economic evidence to generalist courts. 

In October 2001, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice (DOJ) joined with antitrust agencies from 13 other jurisdictions around the world (Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Zambia) to create the ICN.  The ICN now includes 127 member agencies from 111 jurisdictions.  The goal of the ICN is to provide a forum for antitrust agencies to address enforcement and policy issues of common interest and to propose ways that member governments could more closely align their policies and enforcement.

The following portions of this year’s conference will be open to the press:

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24 (Day 1)

4:00 a.m. (EDT), 10:00 a.m. (CET) – Opening Session
The conference’s opening session will include remarks by Joaquin Almunia, Vice‐President and Commissioner for Competition of the European Commission (EC), and a panel moderated by John Fingleton, former Chief Executive of the U.K. Office of Fair Trading and former ICN Chair.  Panelists will include Harsha Singh, Deputy Director General of the World Trade Organization, Witold Orlowski, Former Chief Economist to the President of Poland, Pierre Guislain, Director, Investment Climate Department & FAIS of the World Bank, and Paul Lugard, Chair, Commission on Competition, International Chamber of Commerce.

6:00 a.m. (EDT), 12:00 p.m. (CET) – Special Project Session
Małgorzata Krasnodębska‐Tomkiel, President of the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, will moderate a panel discussion on working with courts and judges.  Panelists will include Edith Ramirez, FTC Chairwoman, Philip Collins, Chairman of the U.K. Office of Fair Trading, Nicholas James Forwood, President of Chamber and Judge of the General Court (European Union), Vinícius de Carvalho, President of the Brazil Administrative Council for Economic Defense, and Roberto Chieppa, Council of State Judge and Secretary General of the Italian Competition Authority. 

8:15 a.m. (EDT), 2:15 p.m. (CET) – Advocacy Session
Dan Sjöblom, Director General of the Swedish Competition Authority, will moderate a panel discussion on competition and advocacy reform.  Panelists will include Chris Fonteijn, Chairman of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, Bruno Lasserre, ICN Vice Chair and President of France’s Autorité de la concurrence, Giovanni Pitruzzella, Chairman of the Italian Competition Authority, Carlos Ragazzo, General Superintendent of the Brazil Administrative Council for Economic Defense, and Manuel Sebastião, President of the Portuguese Competition Authority. 

THURSDAY, APRIL 25 (Day 2)

3:00 a.m. (EDT), 9:00 am. (CET) – Agency Effectiveness Session
Randolph Tritell, Director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, will moderate a panel discussion on agency investigative process.  Panelists will include Andreas Mundt, ICN Vice Chair and President of Germany’s Bundeskartellamt, Alexander Italianer, Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate for Competition, and Jaime Barahona, Deputy National Economic Prosecutor of Chile’s National Economic Prosecutor. 

4:00 a.m. (EDT), 10:00 am. (CET) – Merger Session
Ashok Chawla, Chairperson of the Competition Commission of India, will moderate a panel discussion on economic analysis in merger review.  Panelists will include Howard Shelanski, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, John Pecman, Interim Commissioner of Competition Bureau of Canada, Clive Maxwell, Chief Executive of the U.K. Office of Fair Trading, and Bernd Langeheine, Deputy Director of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition.

8:00 a.m. (EDT), 2:00 p.m. (CET) – Unilateral Conduct Session
Melanie Aitken, former Commissioner of the Competition Bureau of Canada, will moderate a panel discussion on key issues related to exclusive dealing.  Panelists will include Kai‐Uwe Kühn, Chief Competition Economist of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, and Ali Ihsan Caglayan, Vice‐President of the Turkish Competition Authority.

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 (Day 3)

3:00 a.m. (EDT), 9:00 a.m. (CET) – Cooperation Session
Assistant Attorney General Baer will moderate a panel discussion on international cooperation.  Panelists will include Antonio Capobianco, Senior Competition Law Expert of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Philip Collins, Chairman of the U.K. Office of Fair Trading, Toshiyuki Nambu, Deputy Secretary General of the Japan Fair Trade Commission, and Salvatore Rebecchini, Commissioner of the Italian Competition Authority.

3:45 a.m. (EDT), 9:45 a.m. (CET) – Cartel Session
Matthew Boswell, Acting Senior Deputy Commissioner of Competition for the Competition Bureau of Canada, will moderate a panel discussion on the new chapter of the Anti-Cartel Enforcement Manual on international cooperation and information sharing.  Panelists will include Joseph Wilson, Commissioner of the Competition Commission of Pakistan, and Joongweon Jeong Commissioner of the Korea Fair Trade Commission.

7:00 a.m.  (EDT), 1:00 p.m. (CET) – Closing

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Warsaw.  More information about the conference is available at http://icnwarsaw2013.org.  ICN documents are available at  www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org.