Trends in Retail Competition: Private Labels, Brands and Competition Policy
This year’s Oxford Symposium, the sixteenth in the series and sponsored by Bristows, will be held online. It continues its focus on competition policy affecting consumer goods markets, specifically the provision of choice, innovation, quality and value to consumers, competition involving retailers and branded suppliers and rivalry between branded products and retailers’ private label ranges.
In its online iteration, the Symposium will comprise four sessions, each of 75 minutes, on themes of particular topicality. These themes are:
- A role for competition law and policy in building a sustainable future?
- Consumer protection, brand integrity and fair trading practices in digital markets
- Digital competition and the regulation of algorithms
- Policy considerations for the distribution of branded products
Further information on each session and those contributing is given below.
There is no charge to attend and delegates are free to join individual sessions, any combination of the four sessions or all four sessions. The event is held under the Chatham House Rule. To register, please complete the form below. (Note that registration will close at 2pm on 10 June 2021.)
PROGRAMME
10.00-10.10 | IntroductionProfessor Ulf Bernitz, Institute of European and Comparative Law, Oxford University |
10.10-11.25 | Session 1 - A role for competition law and policy in building a sustainable future?A session discussing whether competiton rules are, or need be, obstacles to opportunities to enhance the sustainability of branded goods. What lessons can we learn from the Covid 19 crisis? Chair: Simon Holmes, Competition Appeal Tribunal Panellists:
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11.45-13.00 | Session 2 - Consumer protection, brand integrity and fair trading practices in digital marketsA session on the ability of consumers to make informed, accurate buying decisions, the sustaining of brand reputation online and the effects, and potential regulation, of unfair trading practices. Chair: Professor Amelia Fletcher, University of East Anglia Panellists:
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14.00-15.15 | Session 3 - Digital competition and the regulation of algorithmsA session on the consumer and competition harms that may arise in relation to branded products sold online caused by algorithms. Chair: Professor Ariel Ezrachi, Centre for Competiton Law and Policy, Oxford University Panellists:
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15.30-16.45 | Session 4 - Policy considerations for the distribution of branded productsA session on territorial supply constraints, geo-blocking, dual pricing and parallel trade. Chair: Professor Richard Whish, King's College London Panellists:
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| 16.45-16.55 | Closing comments Professor Ulf Bernitz |
The Institute of European and Comparative Law and the Centre for Competition Law and Policy, University of Oxford, are grateful to the British Brands Group for its support in organising the Symposium.