32nd Annual IBA Communications and Competition Law Conference

Rita Wezenbeek is Director of Platforms Policy and Enforcement in DG CONNECT. The Platforms Directorate is in charge of policies and regulations applicable to online intermediary services, including the supervision of the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act (the latter jointly with DG COMP). These two new Regulations establish strong rules to ensure a safe, fair and open platform economy for European citizens and businesses, and give the Commission significant regulatory powers over “gatekeepers” and very large platforms and search engines. Rita joined the European Commission in 2002. Before moving to DG CONNECT in December 2020, she was the head of the units dealing with Anti-Trust and Telecommunications (2017-2020) and Retail Financial Services and Payment Systems (2010-2017) in DG Competition. Before joining the Commission, Rita worked for sixteen years as a private lawyer, specialized in European and corporate law, in a Dutch/ Belgian law firm. She also was a Member of the Commission on European Integration, an independent advisory body on foreign policy to the Dutch government and Parliament.

Senator Lucia Borgonzoni is an Italian politician, born in Bologna in 1976, who has been the Ministry of Culture's Undersecretary of State since October 2022 and a member of the Senate's VII Education and Culture Commission. Lucia also served as Senator of the Italian Republic during the previous XVIIIth Parliamentary term. She began her political career as a Councilor of the City of Bologna's Municipal Council. She holds a diploma from the Bologna Academy of Fine Arts. She exercises the Ministerial Delegation of functions for cinema and audiovisual, copyright legislation, and cultural and creative industries. She is responsible for the policies to promote youth entrepreneurship in the culture sector and represents the Ministry for Culture to the European Union, the Council of Europe, and several Interministerial Committees as the Italian Committee for European Affairs (CIAE) and the Committee on Space and Aerospace-related Policies (COMINT). She attends the preparatory meetings of the Committee for Economic Policy and sustainable development (CIPESS). The Undersecretary of State has recently launched a fitness check exercise to update Italy's cinema and audiovisual legislation to make it more relevant to the significant changes the sector is undergoing in cooperation with the stakeholders. To support the Ministry of Culture Offices, she has also established ministerial working groups on copyright legislation, NFT and the fight against counterfeit and piracy. Lucia held the position of Undersecretary of State for Culture twice, under the Draghi (from 25th February 2021 to 21st October 202) and Conte 1st administrations (from 13th June 2018 to 4th September 2019). During her previous mandates, Lucia was active in international affairs, serving as Head of the Delegation at the "II meeting of the Ministers of Culture of Western Mediterranean" in Portugal as well as on state missions to Brazil, Japan, China, Macedonia, and Bethlehem to promote Italian culture. Lucia is currently on her second official visit to Los Angeles.

Innocenzo Genna is an expert on telecoms and Internet European regulation. He is also known via his professional blog RadioBruxellesLibera. He is currently legal advisor to the Dipartimento per la Trasformazione Digitale, the section of the Italian Prime Minister Office dealing with digital policy. He has been in charge of various executive positions with European trade organizations in Brussels, such as MVNO Europe, Euroispa and ECTA, as well as Board Member of the European Internet Forum, the Brussels foundation gathering all stakeholders and members of the European Parliament active in the digital sector. Previously, he was the chairman of ECTA , while he also served as General Counsel for Tiscali S.p.A.. At beginning of his career, he was a partner attorney at Ughi e Nunziante, a leading Italian law firm based in Rome and Milan.

JunHe LLP, Beijing, China; Co-Chair, Antitrust Section Janet Hui is a partner at JunHe LLP and is based in Beijing. She primarily specializes in antitrust, cross-border M&A, FDI and general corporate matters. Janet has been recognized as a Band 1 Ranked Lawyer by Chambers and Partners (Asia-Pacific 2012-2022), Leading Lawyer and Recommended Lawyer by The Legal 500 (2012-2022), Highly Regarded Lawyer by IFLR1000 (2017-2022), and Thought Leader- Global Elite by Who’s Who Legal (2017-2022) in antitrust matters. Janet is the Co-Chair of IBA Antitrust Committee, 2023 - 2024. Janet has more than 30 years’ experience in providing legal services to clients in different industries, particularly in areas such as telecommunications and media, hotels and real estate, aviation, automobile, semiconductor, home appliance, pharmaceutical, medical instrument, food and beverage, etc.

Kyriakos is the Herbert Smith Freehills Brussels office Managing Partner and EMEA Regional Head of Practice for Competition, Regulation and Trade. He has over 20 years' experience advising clients across all aspects of EU and UK competition law, including merger control, cartels, antitrust investigations and advice, distribution agreements, dominance, and competition litigation before the EU courts. He also advises client on foreign direct investment issues. Kyriakos has advised clients across a broad range of industries with particular expertise in TMT, pharmaceuticals, energy and mining, financial services, transport and consumer goods. He works closely with the Herbert Smith Freehills network to provide advice on multi-jurisdictional transactions and investigations. Kyriakos brings particular expertise through his background as an EU official, having held positions as a European Commission official at DG Competition’s merger task force and then as a legal assistant in the cabinet of the President of the General Court of the EU. He is currently a vice chair of the IBA's Antitrust Committee.

With more than 15 years of experience, Laurent De Muyter's practice covers the regulation of electronic communications, data protection, and antitrust. Laurent ensures clients' regulatory compliance and litigates before the EU Commission and national regulators/courts in infringement procedures and related damage claims. In electronic communications, Laurent has advised operators and regulators, such as T-Mobile and KPN, on liberalizing markets, allocating spectrum, rolling-out and sharing networks, interconnection and interoperability, roaming, access regulations, universal services obligations and financing, numbering, and legal tapping. Laurent's data protection experience includes advising companies like Cardinal Health and ICANN on issues such as handling data breaches, drafting privacy policies, establishing direct marketing and whistleblower schemes, transferring data outside the EU (including approvals of binding corporate rules [BCRs] and standard contractual clauses [SCCs]), data portability, data retention, and cybersecurity. Laurent's antitrust experience covers anticompetitive practices and merger filings at the EU and national levels across various industries, including automotive, chemicals, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, oil, telecoms, and waste management. He regularly advises clients on compliance matters in relation to cooperation agreements, distribution, and technology licensing. Laurent has been a member ("assessor") of the decisional body of the Belgian Competition Authority since 2013, as well as a research fellow at the University of Liège since 2008. He teaches the regulation of data at the Federation of Enterprises in Belgium program on artificial intelligence. He has been an officer of the IBA Communications Law Committee since 2016 and is also a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Laurent's in-house experience includes a secondment at the GSM Association in London in 2008.

Samantha Mobley is a partner in the Competition, Trade and Foreign Investment team at Baker & McKenzie's London office. She headed Baker McKenzie's Global Antitrust and Competition Group, a team of over 300 competition and antitrust specialists worldwide, for six years. Samantha has extensive experience in all areas of EU and UK competition law. She is an experienced merger control specialist and regularly advises the boards of UK plcs in numerous industry sectors on antitrust compliance matters. Samantha is Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association and is a Non-Governmental Adviser, UK Competition and Markets Authority at the International Competition Network. Samantha was ranked as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” by Who's Who Legal.

Kristina Nordlander, a partner at Allen & Overy LLP Antitrust/Competition group, has a thriving EU competition and litigation practice representing major companies in various sectors. Kristina is a skilled advocate and has led high-stakes antitrust investigations before the European Commission and precedent-setting litigation before the EU Courts. Kristina advises clients on all aspects of EU competition law, including merger control, cartels and abuse of dominance. Kristina also focuses on EU competition law enforcement issues impacting the digital single market, online selling, mobile and electronic payments and other technology. She founded the Women’s Competition Network and was named a 2017 “Top 10 Innovator" in Europe by the Financial Times.

Angela is a partner of Australian law firm Quay Law Partners. Angela has over 20 years’ experience as a partner in private practice and in senior Australian Commonwealth Government roles. She has broad commercial law expertise in transactional and regulatory matters, with a focus on telecommunications, media and technology, digital issues and privacy. Angela has been recognised as one of Global Data Review’s “Women in Data 2022” and has been ranked as a leading lawyer in the area of Data in Who’s Who Legal for both 2021 and 2022. Angela is an officer of the IBA Communications Law Committee, member of the auDA Licence Review Panel (auDA is Australia’s domain name administrator) and President of the International Institute of Communications, Australian Chapter.

Vittorio Noseda has extensive experience in advising leading national and multinational groups with particular reference to extraordinary business transactions as well as Telecom and ICT matters. In particular, he has been advising for more than 25 years large multinationals in all their major M&A projects, investments, outsourcings as well as Telecom and ICT issues in Italy. Mr Noseda has been consistently highly ranked in all main directories with respect to ICT and M&A matters. Vittorio Noseda has been Managing Partner of Nctm for 6 years and Head of Executive Committee and Head of Professional Practices for 7 years. He is member of the Board of Directors at Nctm. He is and has been heading the Technology, Digital Media and Telecom team of Nctm (one of the largest ICT/Telecom department in any law firm operating in Italy) over the last 15 years. He is an Officer of the IBA Communication Committee since December 2014. He is presently co-chairman of the IBA Communication Committee. Vittorio Noseda is, and/or has been over the last 15 years, consistently ranked and/or recommended in all major EU and/or Italian directories including Legal 500, IFLR, Chambers, Who’s Who, LegalCommunity, Best Lawyers, etc. “Vittorio Noseda: high legal skills, strong technically, business talent. Extremely available and quick in reverting. He and his team are very well-organised, very reliable, dedicated to clients”.

Zoltán Marosi's main area of expertise lies in Hungarian and EU antitrust law, consumer protection law and administrative litigation. He has published numerous articles and book excerpts in the fields of competition law, commercial law and European Union law. He is currently a lecturer of EU law at ELTE School of Law and serves as a member of the Hungarian committee of bar examiners. Furthermore, he is an officer of the International Bar Association, serving on its Antitrust Committee. Zoltán is also a non-governmental advisor in the International Competition Network to the European Commission's DG COMP.

Carel Maske is Senior Attorney with Microsoft in Brussels covering antitrust in the EMEA region including antitrust counseling and compliance as well as managing antitrust-related investigations and litigation. Before joining Microsoft, he had practiced competition law with two international law firms in Berlin and Brussels. Carel Maske is a German qualified lawyer and holds a phD in European Competition Law. He regularly speaks at conferences on antitrust compliance and works on competition policy topics.

Vittorio Noseda has extensive experience in advising leading national and multinational groups with particular reference to extraordinary business transactions as well as Telecom and ICT matters. In particular, he has been advising for more than 25 years large multinationals in all their major M&A projects, investments, outsourcings as well as Telecom and ICT issues in Italy. Mr Noseda has been consistently highly ranked in all main directories with respect to ICT and M&A matters. Vittorio Noseda has been Managing Partner of Nctm for 6 years and Head of Executive Committee and Head of Professional Practices for 7 years. He is member of the Board of Directors at Nctm. He is and has been heading the Technology, Digital Media and Telecom team of Nctm (one of the largest ICT/Telecom department in any law firm operating in Italy) over the last 15 years. He is an Officer of the IBA Communication Committee since December 2014. He is presently co-chairman of the IBA Communication Committee. Vittorio Noseda is, and/or has been over the last 15 years, consistently ranked and/or recommended in all major EU and/or Italian directories including Legal 500, IFLR, Chambers, Who’s Who, LegalCommunity, Best Lawyers, etc. “Vittorio Noseda: high legal skills, strong technically, business talent. Extremely available and quick in reverting. He and his team are very well-organised, very reliable, dedicated to clients”.

Thomas Lohninger was a programmer and anthropologist in his former life. Digital rights had been his hobby until it became a job when he intensively accompanied the EU Net Neutrality Regulation as Policy Advisor for European Digital Rights (EDRi). Thomas was one of the driving forces behind the www.savetheinternet.eu campaign and has a strong work focus on net neutrality, data protection, and mass surveillance. Since 2010 he has played an active part at epicenter.works and since 2014 he is the executive director of the association. He also writes on Netzpolitik.org, is a regular guest in the Podcast Logbuch:Netzpolitik and a non-residential Fellow of the Center for Internet and Society at the Stanford Law School. Since 2019 he is in the board of EDRi and since 2020 Vice President of the EU umbrella of digital rights NGOs.

Annamaria is a partner in the Linklaters Antitrust and Foreign Investment Group practice. Based in Brussels, Annamaria is a fully-rounded competition lawyer with considerable experience representing clients in international merger control, FDI, cartel investigations and litigation matters in a wide range of industries, with a particular focus on the telecommunications, digital, energy, healthcare and FMG sectors. Annamaria has been a key advisor on many high-profile transactions in the telecommunications sector, and that included advising clients on sophisticated set of remedies in order to obtain merger clearances. Ranked among the “40 under 40” top antitrust practitioners worldwide (GCR) and as one of the top female M&A lawyers in EMEA, Annamaria closely follows the development in the digital space, and regularly speaks and publishes articles on the role that competition law plays when it comes to support innovation.

Atsushi Yamada is a partner at the Tokyo office of Anderson Mori & Tomotsune focusing on competition/antitrust law. His practice covers all aspects of competition/antitrust law including assisting clients in investigations by competition authorities (cartels/dominance/unfair trade practices), representation in courts/tribunals challenging decisions made by competition authorities, follow-on civil litigation, and merger filings. He also provides advice relating to structuring new businesses and establishing compliance programs. Prior to joining Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, he has worked at the Tokyo office of a US law firm and a local Japanese firm after serving as a judge at the Tokyo District Court as well as other courts. With such background, he has extensive experience in litigation and general corporate matters. He also serves as an adjunct lecturer for antitrust law at Hitotsubashi University (School of Law), and has spoken at various international conferences/seminars including the ABA, IBA and ICN. Atsushi Yamada is a graduate of the University of Tokyo (LLB, 1994) and Cornell Law School (LLM, 2004). He is admitted to the Bar in both Japan and New York.

Samantha Mobley is a partner in the Competition, Trade and Foreign Investment team at Baker & McKenzie's London office. She headed Baker McKenzie's Global Antitrust and Competition Group, a team of over 300 competition and antitrust specialists worldwide, for six years. Samantha has extensive experience in all areas of EU and UK competition law. She is an experienced merger control specialist and regularly advises the boards of UK plcs in numerous industry sectors on antitrust compliance matters. Samantha is Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association and is a Non-Governmental Adviser, UK Competition and Markets Authority at the International Competition Network. Samantha was ranked as a “Global Elite Thought Leader” by Who's Who Legal.

Regulatory Affairs Lead South Europe and Academic Outreach Europe at Google, where Andrea manages the regulatory work of the Government Affairs and Public Policy Google/YouTube teams of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta & Cyprus. Professor of Comparative Law, and New Technologies Law & Management and Director of Research Centres at European University of Rome; Visiting Professor and Academic Fellow at National University of Singapore and Universidad Francisco de Vitoria of Madrid. Publications: 10 books and 75+ articles in academic journals.

Senior Legal Director at the Competition & Markets Authority

Mohammed Suleh-Yusuf is a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria that was admitted to the Nigerian Bar in 2003. He holds a Bachelors’ Degree in Law from University of Maiduguri in Nigeria that was achieved in 2001 and a Masters Degree in International Commercial Law from the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom in 2009. Mohammed also holds a Ph.D in Law from Nasarawa State University in Nigeria. He has previously worked with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria as a pioneer staff in 2004. He has also worked at Standard Chartered Bank as its Financial Crimes Risk Manager for West Africa and later as its Country CDD Advisor for Nigeria between 2009 and 2013. He joined Etisalat Nigeria in 2013 as its Head of Public Policy, Government Affairs and Community Relations, where he handled policy formulation issues in the telecommunications sector as well as the management of the company’s relations with regulators and the legislature in Nigeria. Mohammed joined the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulator of the communications Sector in Nigeria, in 2018. He serves in the Legal and Regulatory Services Department, where he handles matters related to regulations, guidelines and laws. He has published several research papers on corporate criminal liability, money laundering and terrorism financing as well as his postdoctoral research areas of cyber security, data protection and internet security.

Yvette Tarlov is the Chief of the Media, Entertainment, and Communications section of the Antitrust Division, United States Department of Justice. During her tenure at DOJ, Ms. Tarlov has managed or led numerous antitrust investigations in the television, satellite, cable, video programming, film, and music industries, several of which have resulted in litigated complaints. In the course of these investigations, Ms. Tarlov has had regular and substantial interactions with numerous international competition agencies, including the Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission, and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) in Brazil. She received a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Washington and a J.D. with honors from Syracuse University College of Law. Prior to coming to DOJ, Ms. Tarlov spent several years in private practice where she specialized in antitrust and complex commercial litigation.

I have worked in technology, communications and competition law in the UK and France for 30 years and I love the work in this area. I am assisted in the cross-border aspects of this exceptionally international field because I enjoy speaking several European languages and am happiest in a cross-cultural environment where my insights can add value to what each person is doing; I most like meeting and establishing relationships with people from different cultures and environments. I am fortunate to lead a great team and a growing practice at CMS and that makes me very fulfilled. We are doing more and more work on digital infra funding which is a fascinating and growing subjects breaking regulatory moulds as owner/operator ceases to be the predominant business model for telecos. I am passionate about digital including digital identity and the movement of legal principles and rights from the physical to the digital world. My goals are to succeed in the things that I want to achieve, yet to spend the maximum time with my wonderful family, to keep doing and enjoying what I am doing, to catch great fish in exciting and beautiful places, to grow the best wines in Chablis and Irancy, to keep fit, and to continue to have as many good friends as I have time for. I have been recognised in The Legal 500 Hall of Fame as one of the elite leading lawyers for Telecommunications, an accolade celebrating standout lawyers who have been ranked in The Legal 500 for 10 years or more. I have also been included in The Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Global Elite 2020, an esteemed guide to the world’s foremost legal experts. Selected through nominations from peers and corporate counsel, the guide shines a light on members of the legal profession who truly stand out in their field as being leaders and trailblazers, and who are held in the highest esteem by their clients and fellow practitioners. I was also identified by Who’s Who as one of the UK’s top 50 Data lawyers. As a firm, CMS lawyers represent over 10% of those included in the guide, head and shoulders above any other firm recognised in the guide. Specialties: Comms and regulated/network industries specialist, particularly in competition and regulatory issues and corporate/finance/commercial transactions

Mario Girasole is Senior Executive Vice-President at TIM Brasil for Public, Regulatory, ESG and Communication Affairs. He is also Chairman and Managing Director of the TIM Institute and member of boards and councils in national and international entities. He joined Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) in 1997 and from 2000 to 2003 headed the relations with the European Union institutions in Brussels, where he was also appointed Deputy-Chairman of the European association of mobile operators (GSMA Europe). In 2004, he moved to Brazil as Public and Regulatory Affairs Director at Telecom Italia America Latina, when he also served as a Member of the Board for Entel Bolivia and TIM Participações. Mario Girasole holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Perugia and a Master's degree in Economics from LUISS University (Rome). He also has an LL.M in International Business Law from the University of London, a Master in Contemporary Economic History from the University of Rome and executive education at Columbia Business School, INSEAD and Harvard School of Government, among others. Mr. Girasole has been awarded as Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy by the President of the Italian Republic "for promoting friendly relations and cooperation with other countries and ties with Italy." In Brazil, he was awarded the Peacemaker Medal by the Ministry of Defense and as Officer of the Order of Rio Branco by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An Italian naturalized Brazilian, Mr. Girasole was granted honorary citizenship of the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro in 2022.

Damien Geradin is the founding partner of Geradin Partners, a boutique competition law with offices in Brussels and London. Damien's practice covers all aspects of EU competition law, with a particular focus on the tech sector. Besides being a practitioner, he is also a leading academic who taught in leading law schools in Europe, the United States and Asia. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics.

Andrea’s professional and academic expertise is competition/regulatory law and the intersection with intellectual property law with a particular focus on the media/tech industries, where he held senior in-house positions in international groups. He is currently Associate General Counsel, EMEA at OpenAI and a Visiting Professor at Kings College Dickson Poon School of Law in London, where he teaches the course “Competition and Intellectual Property in the Media Industry: Law and Practice” in the LLM program. Over the years, Andrea has been involved in a wide range of market-leading competition cases in the entertainment and tech industries, advising executives on some of the most transformational cases, deals and competition policy developments across all media and tech sectors globally: movies, TV networks, pay-tv, music, production, sport, news, publishing, digital platforms, online streaming, games. He has also been at the forefront of the digital policy debates, from the Digital Single Market to the application of competition rules to the digital economy, the regulation of digital platforms, the intersection with IP, data protection and consumer laws. In addition to his international business (Netflix, News Corporation, Fox, Warner Bros, Time Warner, MTV International) and private practice (Herbert Smith) experiences, he was also appointed to head the international department of the UK Competition Authority (in 2008), a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) to the International Competition Network (ICN) appointed by the UK Competition and Markets Authority, and an advisor to the Undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Culture on audio-visual policies and copyright in the creative industries. He is also a member of the Innovation, Regulation and Competition Policy Centre (ICPC) at the Universita’ Europea in Rome and a member of the Scientific Committee of the Centro Sperimentale Cinema. He was an officer and Co-Chair of the Antitrust Committee of the International Bar Association. He was featured in Global Competition Review’s list of top in-house antitrust lawyers in the world (Corporate Counsel 2019) and among the “Stars of the In-House Competition Bar” in Global Competition Review (March 2005)).