1 October 2024
Eighteen participants, one location, and one important mission — knowledge exchange on platform regulations and antitrust laws. As these topics become increasingly crucial in today’s digital world, a colloquium at the beginning of the year proved to be a good initiative for us to get the ball rolling.
Industry experts from smartclip, RTL Deutschland, RTL Group, and Bertelsmann, as well as academic experts from the University of Würzburg, came together for the one-day antitrust law colloquium held at the headquarters of RTL Deutschland in Cologne.
The day started off with presentations by the Chair for Global Business Law, International Arbitration Law, and Private Law of the University of Würzburg, Prof. Dr Florian Bien and his colleague Dr Björn Christian Becker. They provided a theoretical overview of the current legislation — the Digital Market Act regulation — which was recently passed by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU and will apply from 2 May 2023.
After the round of theoretical knowledge sharing, it was time to get some practical insights on the topic with examples from the corporate world. That’s where Siska Ghesquiere, RTL Group’s General Counsel and Head of M&A, and Dr Philipp König, Vice President Corporate Legal Department at Bertelsmann, came in. They presented first-hand use cases based on examples from RTL Group and mergers in the Bertelsmann world, respectively.
Wrapping up the presentation rounds, Thomas Servatius, Co-CEO of smartclip, explained the adtech business model and presented an overview of the world of smartclip.
The event concluded with a tour of the RTL headquarters including the TV studios where the guests experienced a bit of the daily business of a free-to-air broadcaster.
We are proud to have brought like-minded individuals from the industry and the academic world together. A big thank you to all the participants for making the colloquium a success, especially RTL Deutschland for providing us with the venue and a lovely tour. We look forward to organising similar events where we can come together with academic experts for knowledge exchange.