Digital Enforcement Summit 2020 - Agenda

The Competition Bureau's inaugural Digital Enforcement Summit will feature a series of four online panels throughout October and November 2020.

Expert panelists will discuss topics that follow the stages of an investigation—from detection to resolution—providing an opportunity for participants to share best practices, and explore new tools and strategies for tackling emerging enforcement issues in the digital era.

Panels & Speakers

Panel 1 – Developments in Intelligence, Detection and Evidence

Panel details:

As anticompetitive activity in the digital age becomes more complex and opaque, competition authorities are investing in intelligence and detection capabilities in the shift away from primarily reactive enforcement models. The kickoff panel will cover two topics: the role of digital intelligence in the pre-investigation stage; and advances in the process of evidence gathering, including its collection, creation and processing.

When:

October 6, 2020 from 8:00am to 9:30am EDT

Moderator:

George McDonald, Chief Digital Enforcement Officer, Competition Bureau Canada

Panelists:

  • Dirk Van Erps, Adviser to the Deputy Director-General for Antitrust and Cartels, European Commission Directorate-General for Competition (EC DGCOMP)
  • José Manuel Haro Zepeda, Director General for Markets Intelligence, Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) of Mexico
  • Stefan Hunt, Chief Data and Technology Insight Officer, United Kingdom Competition & Markets Authority (UK CMA)
  • Herbert Fung, Chief Data Officer and Senior Director Business & Economics, Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore
  • Jeanne Pratt, Senior Deputy Commissioner, Mergers and Monopolistic Practices Branch, Competition Bureau Canada

Panel 2 – The Future of Competition Investigations

Panel details:

The digital economy has changed the way enforcement agencies are conducting their investigations and the tools that support their work. Investigatory practices suited for traditional industries can be out of step with the realities of companies operating in digital markets. This panel will dive into how enforcement agencies are adapting their approaches for digital investigations, and the kinds of skills required in this changing environment, with a focus on major case management and team skills and composition.

When:

October 19, 2020 from 8:00am to 9:30am EDT

Moderator:

Matthew Bargh, Intelligence Manager, Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices Branch, Competition Bureau Canada

Panelists:

  • Flavio Laina, Head of Unit, Cartel Directorate, EC DGCOMP
  • Kate Brand, Director of Data Science, UK CMA
  • Ramiro Camacho Castillo, Commissioner, Mexico Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT)
  • Tim Lear, Special Adviser, Substantial Lessening of Competition Unit, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
  • Ryan Quillan, Deputy Assistant Director of the Technology Enforcement Division, United States Federal Trade Commission (US FTC)

Panel 3 – Enforcement Tools in the Digital Age

Panel details:

While the digital age may present new challenges for enforcement, it also has given rise to new technological solutions and tools to support enforcement. Competition authorities have an excellent opportunity to learn from the experiences of not only international counterparts but enforcement agencies and regulators outside of antitrust. The panel will explore innovative strategies being used such as AI and predictive coding in document review, and will feature a discussion on the implementation of new tools in a law enforcement context.

When:

November 10, 2020 from 8:00am to 9:30am EST

Moderator:

Mario Gordilho, Head of Merger and Antitrust Unit, Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) of Brazil

Panelists:

  • Diogo Thomson, Deputy Superintendent CADE of Brazil
  • Sergio Lopez Rodriguez, Head of the Investigative Authority, COFECE of Mexico
  • Stefano Constantini, Lead Data Scientist, UK CMA
  • Zachary A. Keller, FTC Dallas Regional Office
  • Ann Salvatore, Deputy Commissioner, Cartels Directorate, Competition Bureau Canada

Panel 4 – Emerging Litigation and Case Resolution Strategies

Panel details:

As the transition to the digital economy raises the stakes of competition cases, timely and effective litigation and case resolution is increasingly important. Multi-year competition cases appear less relevant in an environment of dynamic markets tipping to a small handful of incumbents. This panel will focus on emerging approaches to resolution and litigation, with an emphasis on the challenges agencies face with the rapid pace of change in the digital economy and evolving evidentiary burdens in Court.

When:

November 26, 2020 from 8:00am to 9:30am EST

Moderator:

Josephine Palumbo, Deputy Commissioner Deceptive Marketing Practices Directorate, Competition Bureau Canada

Panelists:

  • Andrew Francis, Assistant Director Digital Platforms Branch, ACCC
  • Tom Smith, Legal Director, Digital Markets Taskforce, UK CMA
  • Wendy Berman, Vice Chair Ontario Securities Commission, Canada
  • Susan Wortzman, Founder of MT>3 and Partner at McCarthy Tétrault

Speaker bios

  • Panel 1

    George McDonald joined the Competition Bureau in July 2019 as their first Chief Digital Enforcement Officer. He is from Ottawa, a husband, a father of two kids, and an avid waterskier and traveler. Mr. McDonald's passion and career focus has involved leveraging information as a strategic asset to transform organizations. He loves to solve problems, ask difficult questions, disrupt the norm through innovation, and leverage data to iterate towards the best outcomes. He brings broad industry experience and knowledge across financial, public sector, customer service, health care, telecommunications, marketing and high-tech industries.

    He began his career as an Engineer before completing his Master of Business and establishing his advanced analytics and data science roots with Bank of America. In 2010, Mr. McDonald moved into IBM's Global Business Services consulting practice where he has thrived ever since, holding various national leadership roles focused on Advanced Analytics, AI, Data Governance and creating actionable insights with Data. George's thirst for knowledge and ability to unite the team around new technologies and concepts supports the Bureau's digital enforcement of Canada's competition laws.

    José Manuel Haro Zepeda holds a B.A. in Economics by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and M.A. in Economics by the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE). Currently, he is the Director General for Market Intelligence in the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE).

    Mr. Haro Zepeda joined the extinct Federal Competition Commission in 2010, where he held diverse positions from Assistant Director to Deputy Director General and as Advisor to the Board of Commissioners, positions he held from 2014 to 2016. During 2017 and 2018, he worked as Director General for Markets at the Unit for Liquid Gas of the Energy Regulatory Commission, where he actively took part in the oversight and monitoring of the LP gas market throughout the liberalization process for this fuel's prices.

    In the academic arena, he is Lecturer at the School of Economics of UNAM, where he teaches subjects such as Econometrics and Workshop of Quantitative Methods, and is Assistant Professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, where he teaches the subjects Industrial Organization and Microeconomics.

    Jeanne Pratt is Senior Deputy Commissioner of Mergers and Monopolistic Practices branch at the Canadian Competition Bureau. She oversees the review of merger transactions and investigations related to abuse of dominance and other unilateral and joint anti-competitive conduct. From July 2017-July 2018, she held the position of Executive General Manager of the Merger and Authorization Review Division at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as part of an international interchange. Ms. Pratt has previously held management positions in the Cartels Directorate and as Special Legal Advisor to the Commissioner of Competition. Prior to joining the Competition Bureau, Ms. Pratt was a lawyer who practiced exclusively in the area of competition law, advising clients on all aspects of Canadian competition law and related litigation.

    Dirk Van Erps has been with the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission since 1991. During his first 7 years in DG Competition, he worked in the antitrust unit dealing with the pharmaceutical, agriculture and consumer good sectors. Thereafter, he joined for almost 3 years the so-called Merger Task Force. From 2001 to 2004, he returned to his original antitrust sectoral unit and became a Deputy Head of Unit. After a brief spell at the Energy Unit in early 2005, he worked for almost 10 years as a Head of Unit in the Cartels Directorate where he managed several international cartel investigations as well as the Forensic IT and the Inability to Pay teams. From October 2014 until March 2017, he was the Head of the Antitrust: Pharma and Health Services unit. In April 2017, Mr. Van Erps opted-out of management and returned to the Cartel Directorate as a Senior Expert. In October 2017, he was appointed as an Adviser to the Deputy Director General for Antitrust and Cartels.

    Mr. Van Erps is a lawyer by education. He obtained a law degree at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium in 1986. In 1987, he obtained an LL.M. degree in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

    Herbert Fung, PPA(G) is Senior Director (Business and Economics) and Chief Data Officer at the Competition & Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS). He supervises the Data and Market Analytics Unit and the Consumer Policy Unit and at CCCS. He also supervised a range of cases including the Grab-Uber merger, SISTIC's abuse of dominance, the Singapore Medical Association Guidelines of Fees, and the Petrol Market Study. Prior to joining CCCS in 2008, he was Senior Economic Advisor at the Office of Telecommunications Authority in Hong Kong, and before that, Associate (Equity Research) at Credit Suisse. Mr. Fung graduated with a dual-degree in economics and statistics from the University of Chicago, and holds a post-graduate diploma in EU Competition Law from King's College London, as well as a Professional Certificate in Data Science from HarvardX.

    Stefan Hunt is the Chief Data and Technology Insight Officer at the Competition and Markets Authority of the United Kingdom. He leads a group of data scientists and engineers using rich datasets, writing software or analysing algorithms, particularly relating to digital markets. His unit also includes the new Behavioural Hub.

    He previously founded the Behavioural Economics and Data Science unit at the Financial Conduct Authority, which provided state-of-the-art solutions to regulatory problems using field and lab experiments, econometrics and machine learning.

    He is an Honorary Professor in economics at University of Nottingham, has a PhD in economics from Harvard University and has a bachelor's in mathematics and experimental psychology from University of Cambridge.

  • Panel 2

    Matthew Bargh is the Intelligence Manager for the Competition Bureau's Criminal Intelligence Unit. He began his law enforcement career in 2007 working as a civilian investigator with Hampshire Police in the UK and latterly as the Intelligence Coordinator for Hampshire Police's ‘Major Investigation Team', providing intelligence support on numerous homicide and stranger sexual assault investigations. In 2010, Mr. Barghbecame a police officer and worked on numerous reactive and proactive files, developing specialist expertise in fraud investigation.

    Following his move to Canada in 2014, Mr. Bargh joined the Canadian Competition Bureau, where he has worked as an Investigator on multiple cartel and conspiracy investigations. In 2017 Mr. Bargh took over responsibility for the Bureau's newly established Criminal Intelligence Unit, which takes an intelligence-led approach to enforcement and provides tactical and strategic intelligence support to the Bureau's ‘Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices Branch'.

    Mr. Bargh has a BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

    Ramiro Camacho Castillo has been appointed Commissioner of the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) of Mexico for the period of March 1, 2019 to February 29,2028. He holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Guadalajara, a Master in Operations Research from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, a Master in Economics from the Wisconsin-Madison University, and a Master in Energy and Environmental Economics from the Enrico Mattei Superior School. to the National Hydrocarbons Entity (ENI) of the Italian government.

    He has 22 years of experience, of which half has been as an academic and the other half in regulatory or economic competition authorities. He was a Researcher in Comparative Regulation and General Director of Economic Consultation at the IFT. Likewise, he was Deputy General Director of Competition Studies, Director of Studies and Concentrations and Director of Monopolistic Studies and Practices at the Federal Commission for Economic Competition (COFECE). He is currently a licensed professor at the University of Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta campus.

    Kate Brand is a Director of Data Science within the UK Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) Data, Technology, and Analytics (DaTA) unit. The DaTA Unit is helping the CMA to be more efficient and effective across its remit by building data science tools, data pipelines, gathering and analysing large data sets, and providing technology insight (for example, on merger cases). She oversees a programme of work to understand how businesses use of algorithms can harm consumers and lessen competition and the DaTA Unit contribution to the Digital Markets Taskforce. Before joining the CMA in September 2019, she built and led data science teams across central government.

    Ryan Quillian is a Deputy Assistant Director of the Technology Enforcement Division of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission of the United States. He joined the Commission in 2014, and since then Mr. Quillian has held a variety of positions, including Counsel to the Director of the Bureau of Competition, Attorney Advisor to Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips, Acting Deputy Assistant Director of the Mergers IV Division, and staff attorney in Mergers IV. While in Mergers IV, Mr. Quillian worked on several of the Division's high-profile matters, including DraftKings/FanDuel, Staples/Office Depot, and Sysco/US Foods.

    Prior to joining the FTC, Mr. Quillian was an associate in the antitrust group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. He earned a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and received his undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University.

    Flavio Laina is Head of Unit in the Cartel Directorate of the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission since June 2012. Previously, from March 2009, he has been Head of Unit responsible for Merger control in the sectors of Energy and Environment.

    Mr. Laina is an economist. He joined the European Commission in 1994, after a professional experience in the financial markets in Italy. He has worked in all the operational areas of DG COMP: State aid, Antitrust and Mergers.

    Tim Lear has been involved in completion and consumer law, in Australia and East Asia, since 2000. Since 2017, he has been engaged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as Special Adviser in the Substantial Lessening of Competition Unit. The unit focuses on alleged contraventions of Australia's unilateral conduct provision, s.46 of the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA). Mr. Lear was initially engaged to develop the ACCC's guidance on amendments to the CCA including s.46, and is currently leading the team running the ACCC's first s.46 court case under the amended provision, along with investigations in other sectors including the tech sector.

    From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Lear was the inaugural Executive Director (Operations) of the Hong Kong Competition Commission, responsible for establishing and developing the HKCC's operations and enforcement functions. He oversaw the development of staff, training, policies, guidelines, systems and early investigations and was heavily involved in the HKCC's early advocacy and outreach as competition laws in Hong Kong came into effect.

    From 2005 to 2014, Mr. Lear worked in various positions at the ACCC in enforcement, mergers and international relations. Prior to 2005, Mr. Lear was a commercial litigator acting for various multinational and government clients, including the ACCC. He also spent several years working in strategic communications, policy and commercial roles.

  • Panel 3

    Mário Gordilho is a civil servant since 1991, currently with focus on the career of Specialist on Public Policies and Government Management. He has been working with competition policy in the Brazilian antitrust authority since January 2000. He is the head of unit 2 in CADE's General Superintendence, in charge of assessing mergers and unilateral conducts in service markets, a position he holds since 2012. Mr. Gordilho is Brazil's representative in the technical competition committee of Mercosul since 2009. Graduated in Economics, with specialization in public administration and competition policy, in 2011 he was awarded 1st place in the IBRAC-TIM Award for articles on competition, in the postgraduate and professional category. He has given several classes and lectures on competition in Brazil and abroad.

    Diogo Thomson de Andrade. Master of Law (Law´s philosophy). He is the Deputy Superintendent of CADE since 2012, being the head of cartels investigations since 2011, when he was Director at the former competition authority, the Secretariat of Economic Law of the Ministry of Justice. He served as Acting General Superintendent of CADE between July and October of 2017. He is a Brazilian federal attorney since 2004.

    Sergio López holds a law degree with honors from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and holds several diplomas in competition, amparo trials and criminal law. He currently serves as the Investigative Authority of the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece).

    In October 2001, he joined the former Federal Competition Commission (CFC) as an Assistant Director at the Directorate General for Legal Affairs. Afterwards he served as Director, Deputy Director General, and Director General for Litigation Affairs. From 2009 to 2015, he was responsible of the legal defense of the acts of the competition authority, both former CFC and Cofece, before the Federal Judiciary Branch. In 2016, Mr. López was appointed as Technical Secretariat, office that he held until July 2017, when named to his current position as Cofece's Investigative Authority. As head of the Technical Secretariat, he was responsible of conducting the procedures established by the Federal Economic Competition Law, regulatory provisions, organizational statutes and other applicable rules. In his current position, he is responsible for conducting the investigations for violations to the Competition Law.

    Mr. López has extensive professional experience on competition; he has been actively involved in hundreds of legal disputes in matters of competition before the different bodies of the Federal Judiciary Branch and in charge of the grounds and reasoning of multiple procedures within the Commission. He has several publications on competition law and has been a speaker in different national and international seminars on competition.

    Stefano Costantini is Lead Data Scientist in the Data, Technology and Analytics (DaTA) Unit of the CMA. Mr. Costantini focuses on automated document review, using advanced NLP techniques, to help with CMA cases ranging from merger control to consumer protection. Mr. Costantini has also worked on consumer cases helping developing the tools to monitor and detect undesirable online behaviour, such as posting fake online reviews and making undisclosed endorsements on social media. Prior to joining the CMA, Mr. Costantini worked as data scientist in media publishing company, focusing on personalised advertising. In addition to his experience in data science, Mr. Costantini has more than ten years of experience working as an applied economist in consulting.

    Zachary A. Keller is a staff attorney in the Southwest Region office of the United States Federal Trade Commission, where his practice focuses on consumer protection issues. He is currently the lead attorney in the matters FTC v. Match Group, Inc., No. 3:19-cv-02281-K (N.D. Tex. Sept. 25, 2019), and FTC v. Golden Sunrise Nutraceutical, Inc., et al., No. 1:20-cv-01060-DAD-SKO (E.D. Cal. July 30, 2020), and his investigations have involved extensive use of technology-assisted review. He is a 2013 graduate of Yale Law School and a 2009 graduate of Louisiana State University.

    Ann Salvatore is the Deputy Commissioner in the Cartels Directorate, Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices Branch of the Competition Bureau Canada. Since joining the Bureau well over 30 years ago, she has worked in a variety of areas gaining broad experience in both the enforcement of the Competition Act and in developing enforcement policy. Ms. Salvatore has participated in and led numerous investigations involving both international and domestic cartels and investigations involving false and misleading representations and performance claims. Ms. Salvatore also has extensive experience in operations and has managed large groups involved in providing essential enforcement support, such as the Bureau's computer forensics unit.

  • Panel 4

    Josephine A.L. Palumbo is currently Deputy Commissioner of Competition for the Cartels and Deceptive Marketing Practices Branch of the Competition Bureau of Canada. She previously held the positions of Deputy Executive Director and Senior Litigation Counsel and A/General Counsel for the Canadian Department of Justice (Competition Bureau Legal Services and Civil Litigation Unit) for approximately twenty-five years during which she had carriage of numerous high profile and complex litigation matters and appeared before Federal and Provincial Courts as well as several administrative boards and tribunals on behalf of the Attorney General of Canada.

    As Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Palumbo leads an impressive team of investigators, lawyers, paralegals and managers and has championed several key enforcement matters for the Deceptive Marketing Practices Directorate resulting in significant impact resolutions. Ms. Palumbo is frequently invited as a guest speaker in the area of competition and regulatory law and practice and has taught sessional courses at the University of Ottawa, Queen's University and Trinity College.  Ms. Palumbo graduated with honours from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Sciences (Political Science) and subsequently the Faculty of Common Law. She was admitted to the bar of Ontario in 1993 and articled with the Judiciary of the Tax Court of Canada and the Federal Court of Appeal.

    Susan Wortzman is a partner in the Toronto offices of McCarthy Tétrault and leads MT>3, the firm's e-Discovery and information management practice. Ms. Wortzman provides advice to law firms and corporations concerning the management of e-Discovery, from preservation, identification, collection, processing, review and production of electronic records. She works extensively with her clients on litigation, tribunal and regulatory matters, including Competition Bureau investigations and reviews. She also provides advice to clients on information management and technology strategies. Ms. Wortzman and her team work extensively with clients to develop information governance, best practice, guidelines and litigation readiness plans for managing electronic information.

    One of Canada's most respected e-Discovery lawyers, Ms. Wortzman's creativity, legal and business acumen, and commitment to innovation and technology ensure that her clients receive effective, cutting edge and efficient managed review, e-Discovery and information management services. She is adamant that information need not be a liability, and helps her client understand that their information and documents can be an important asset.

    Andrew Francis is an Assistant Director in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Enforcement Division and Digital Platforms Branch, and has been with the ACCC since 2014. He is currently leading a misuse of market power investigation into a digital platform. He also works on the mandatory news media bargaining code, which aims to address bargaining power imbalances between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, specifically Google and Facebook. Mr. Francis has previously worked on large-scale competition and consumer law litigation in the health care and education sectors.

    Wendy Berman is a Vice-Chair of the Ontario Securities Commission. She was previously Chair of the Securities Litigation Group at the law firm Cassels (and is currently on sabbatical from Cassels). Ms. Berman is one of Canada's foremost litigators with extensive experience in complex commercial and securities-related litigation, often involving parallel and cross-border regulatory, criminal and class action proceedings, and in litigation relating to proxy contests, takeover bids and other mergers and acquisitions. She has represented public companies, directors and officers in some of Canada's largest investigations and proceedings involving disclosure violations, insider trading and other fraud-related allegations, corruption and anti-bribery, mergers and acquisitions, proxy contests and corporate governance. Ms. Berman is recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Canada and the Lexpert Guide to Leading US/Canada Cross-Border Lawyers in Canada, among others. She received the Lexpert Zenith Award honouring leading women lawyers and has been honoured as one of the "Top 25 Canadian Women in Litigation" by Benchmark Litigation on multiple occasions. Ms. Berman is a former member of the Securities Proceedings Advisory Committee, the Board of Directors of The Advocates Society, the Board of the Canadian Partnership for Stroke Recovery and the Executive Committee of the Women in White Collar Defense Association.

    Tom Smith is a Legal Director at the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), working on merger investigations, market investigations and antitrust enforcement. He is currently on the Digital Markets Taskforce, commissioned by the UK Government to advise it on digital markets policy. Prior to entering public service, Mr. Smith was at the international law firm Hogan Lovells in London, specialising in competition law.