From 20 to 22 March 2013 the Bundeskartellamt will hold its 16th International Conference on Competition (IKK) in Berlin. The IKK was launched by the Bundeskartellamt in 1982 in Berlin, the former seat of the authority. Since then every other year the conference brings together representatives of competition authorities and other competition experts from all over the world. It has since become one of the most internationally renowned events on competition policy. Around 380 participants from more than 60 countries are expected to attend this year's conference.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "Protecting competition is an international task. In response to the increasing globalisation of the economy, cooperation between competition authorities has also intensified at international level. Our conference is an important element in the expansion of this international network."

For the morning of 21 March the Bundeskartellamt has invited as speakers Dr Phillip Rösler, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Mr Günther H. Oettinger, EU Commissioner for Energy, and Dr Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA and President of the German Chemical Industry Association.

In four panel discussions heads of competition authorities, antitrust lawyers, academics, politicians, representatives of internationally active companies and other high-ranking participants will examine current issues of international competition law. The following topics will be discussed:

- The political content of antitrust
- Different systems - different rights? "Due process" in a global environment
- Mergers: The More Economic Approach revisited - The latest experiences in competition practice with the use of economic methods in merger assessment
- Competition and the digital economy: Fast innovation - traditional tools?

More information on the programme of the conference is available at the following website http://www.ikk-2013.de/.