The Bundeskartellamt also promotes recognition of the principle of competition by hosting conferences and events on topics of competition law and competition economics. At these events practitioners and academics from all over the world come together and exchange views on fundamental and topical issues of competition law.

 Regular conferences organised by the Bundeskartellamt include in particular:

International Conference on Competition (IKK)

The International Conference on Competition has been organised by the Bundeskartellamt every other year since the early 1980s. The conference provides competition experts from more than 60 countries with an opportunity to discuss current problems of competition policy and competition law with high-ranking representatives from politics, industry and academia.

The 22nd International Conference on Competition took place in Berlin from 28 February to 1 March 2024.

More information on the International Conference on Competition is available here.

Working Group on Competition Law

For more than 50 years now the Bundeskartellamt has organised annual meetings of the Working Group on Competition Law (Professorentagung). At these meetings, university professors from economics and law faculties who are interested in competition law, and judges from the competition divisions at the courts come together to discuss current competition law issues.

The 2024 meeting of the Working Group on Competition Law will take place on 10 October 2024. Background papers (English versions) from previous years are available here.

Franco-German Competition Day

Since 2004 the French competition authorities and the Bundeskartellamt have held a Franco-German Competition Day every two years, which is organised in rotation by the respective competition authorities. The conferences address issues which, in addition to their relevance to multilateral cooperation at the European level, are also of particular importance to the bilateral relationship between the two countries, or which relate to specific competition issues affecting both countries. The target group of the conferences are primarily staff members of the competition authorities concerned, and, depending on the topical focus of the conference, representatives of the respective regulatory agencies as well as company representatives, lawyers, university professors and judges.

Working Group on Competition Economics

With the launch of the Working Group on Competition Economics in October 2017 the Bundeskartellamt initiated a new series of events. At regular meetings, concepts and methods used in the authority’s case practice as well as cross-case issues are discussed with academics specialising in industrial economics and competition policy.