News

The 24th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) was hosted by the UK CMA in Edinburgh, Scotland, from 7 to 9 May 2025. Participants from more than 90 jurisdictions attended this year’s conference, including representatives and stakeholders from the business community, legal and economic professionals, international organisations and academics.

The ICN is the most important network of competition authorities worldwide and a unique forum for the authorities to come together, exchange ideas and find joint solutions. It comprises more than 140 competition agencies.

At the conference, participants shared experiences and engaged in discussions in the plenaries and breakout sessions organised by the ICN working groups. Special sessions were dedicated to the role of competition in driving productivity, innovation and growth, and to a global update on competition in digital markets. Keynote speeches and interviews were given by the UK’s Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets, Justin Madders MP, Chairman of the US FTC, Andrew Ferguson, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, and Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the US DOJ, Gail Slater, among others. The conference recordings are available here.

At the conference, Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt, handed over the chair of the ICN Steering Group to Andrea Marván, President of the Mexican competition authority. Andreas Mundt was involved in the creation of the ICN, has been Chair since 2013 and hosted the ICN Annual Conference in Bonn in 2005 and in Berlin in 2022. He will continue to serve as a member of the ICN Steering Group.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt and former ICN Chair

“It has been a true pleasure and an even greater privilege to be at the helm of the ICN for so many years, which have not always been smooth sailing. The ICN is a stable, mature, influential and widely respected international organisation that has grown not only in membership but also in the range of issues it covers. Its strength lies in the direct connection between its members and its focus on issues that truly matter to them.”

Andrea Marván, President of the Competition Authority Mexico and new ICN Chair

“My goal to serve as Chair of the Steering Group stems from a profound sense of duty and dedication to the network beyond the honor associated with this position, and a desire to fully harness the network’s potential through the contributions from its members.”

The 24th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) will be hosted by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in Edinburgh, United Kingdom from 7 to 9 May 2025.

The annual conference brings together agencies to have an open dialogue and share ideas and best practices. This benefits all agencies, ensuring consistency and efficiency in competition enforcement in the interest of promoting competition on behalf of consumers and fair-dealing businesses.

For further information on the ICN Annual Conference, please visit the conference website. The plenary sessions will be livestreamed.

The ICN 2024/25 work products to be presented to the ICN membership at the ICN Annual Conference in Edinburgh are now online:

The ICN Statement of Achievement 2024-2025 is available here.

Registration is now open on the workshop website and the full agenda is available here.

Should you have any questions regarding the event, please contact [email protected]

The International Competition Network and the World Bank Group are pleased to announce the launch of the 2025 Competition Advocacy Contest, which follows the successful experience of the previous ten joint editions.
We are looking for success stories from competition agencies, other government bodies or non-governmental organizations that demonstrate the tangible results of competition advocacy regarding:

Theme 1 – Supporting resilient and competitive value chains to enable private investment, jobs, and consumer welfare
Theme 2 – Embedding competition principles in policies to manage state assets: SOEs, privatization and public private partnerships
Theme 3 – Enhancing public procurement and curbing bid rigging for government savings
Theme 4 – Advancing competition through public-private dialogue

The deadline for submissions is February 14, 2025.

For more information and details on how to apply please visit the following web-page:

https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2024/12/06/competition-advocacy-contest-2025

We welcome your participation!
Competitiveness Unit, World Bank Group, and the Italian Competition Authority on behalf of the ICN Advocacy Working Group Co-Chairs

ICN “Kick-Off Call” 

Hear from the ICN Working Groups on New Work Products and

How to Get Involved in this Year’s Projects

  Wednesday, September 18, 2024

08:00–09:00 (Ottawa)/14:00–15:00 (Bonn)

Registration link

ICN working groups and project teams will present new work products, work plans for 2024/2025, ICN events, and opportunities to participate in this year’s projects.

The ICN Statement of Achievement 2023-2024 is available here.

The workshop was hosted by the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece) from 2-4 October  2024 in Mexico City at the Barceló Reforma México Hotel.

This year’s event, entitled The Future of the Fight Against Cartel Agreements explored the challenges that competition agencies are facing and will face in the near future regarding the detection, investigation and enforcement of the law against cartels. The workshop featured both technical and practical sessions covering topics ranging from proactive detection tools, the impact of new technologies on collusion and the future of international cooperation in cartel enforcement.

The press release is available here.

 ICN 2024 MERGER WORKSHOP

13-15 November 2024

TAIPEI, TAIWAN

The International Competition Network (ICN) Merger Workshop was held by the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission at the Regent Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan, from 13 to 15 November 2024.

The two-and-a-half-day workshop offered opportunities for national competition authorities (NCAs) and non-governmental advisors (NGAs) to discuss and exchange experiences on highly topical merger issues, including potential/dynamic competition, innovation theories of harm in both horizontal and non-horizontal mergers as well as other non-price parameters of competition. Given the increasingly dynamic nature of competition enforcement in digital and other sectors, these topics are more pertinent than ever.

Participants had the opportunity to discuss in an interactive setting various hypothetical cases (e.g. theories of harm, remedies, investigative tools), to elaborate on draft Merger Working Group products and discuss, among other topics, procedural aspects of merger investigations.

More information and videos are available here.