LATEST NEWS
Aastha Mantri joins panel at the ‘Frontiers in Competition and Regulation’ conference
Economic Insight Associate Director, Aastha Mantri, will be joining a discussion on the evolution of competition and monopoly law on Friday 16th June at the upcoming ‘Frontiers in Competition and Regulation’ conference in Norwich. She will be joined by Morten Hviid, Sebastian Peyer, Sean Ennis and Andreas Stephan from the Centre for Competition Policy, and Peter Lukacs from the Financial Conduct Authority.
More details about the event can be found here.
Trains, planes and auto-matic switching?
One of our Consultants, David Sookias, has written an insightful LinkedIn post on the French government’s ban of all short-haul domestic non-connecting flights. David discusses why trains and planes may not be fully substitutable for some consumers and what the economic impacts of policy change might be. The post can be found here.
Economic Insight sponsoring the ‘Thought Leaders 4 Competition’ conference
Economic Insight is proud to be sponsoring the upcoming ‘Thought Leaders 4 Competition’ conference in London on Tuesday 6th June. Economic Insight co-founder, Sam Williams, will be part of the panel discussion on ‘Identifying Recent Developments in Litigation Funding and Potential Future Direction’. Sam and the panel will be discussing: (i) what Litigation Funding Agreements should look like; (ii) how they should be insured; (iii) developments in the regulation of funding; and more.
More details about the event can be found here.
Economic Insight sponsoring the ‘Advanced EU Competition Law’ conference
Economic Insight is proud to be sponsoring the upcoming ‘Advanced EU Competition Law’ conference in London. Economic Insight Associate Director, Aastha Mantri, will be part of the panel discussion on ‘The Big Debate: The Role of Competition Law in 21st Century’ on Wednesday 26th April. She will be joined by Frédéric Jenny, Chairman of the Competition Committee; Ioannis Lianos, President of the Hellenic Competition Commission; and Bitten Thorgaard Sørensen, Head of Competition Law & Policy at A.P. Moller – Maersk.
More details about the event can be found here
Economic Insight co-organises the inaugural Economics All-Stars Cup
On Saturday 22 April, Economic Insight will be inflating our footballs and supplying our best talent in the inaugural “Economics All-Stars Cup” (a 16-team football tournament at Powerleague Shoreditch). This tournament has been co-organised with NERA Economic Consulting – with thanks to one of our consultants David Sookias and NERA consultant James Thomas for this.
The rate of interest has been high and a wide range of both consultancies and regulators will be competing in the tournament, specifically: AlixPartners, Berkeley Research Group LLC, Charles River Associates, Competition and Markets Authority, Compass Lexecon, Deloitte, DotEcon Ltd, Economic Insight, Financial Conduct Authority, Frontier Economics, Grant Thornton UK LLP, NERA Economic Consulting, PwC UK and RBB Economics.
Beyond the competitive fun, the tournament will have a keen charity focus, with players and/or companies encouraged to make a donation to one of a shortlist of charities.
Best of luck to all teams involved and may the invisible hand be ever in your favour!
Designing RSSB’s membership levy in response to inflation
Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) commissioned Economic Insight to conduct a critical review of its approach to determining its member levy for the CP7 period, including advice in relation to adjustments for inflation. The critical review focussed on the workstreams that RSSB had undertaken to determining the member levy.
We identified the objectives and best practice related to each of the workstreams, in order to then assess the approach that was implemented by RSSB. In relation to inflation, we assessed various options for how the member levy could be adjusted for inflation over time, including different indexation approaches. We took into consideration the extent to which indexes may align with RSSB’s cost base, along with how transparent and simple different mechanisms would be.
Outcome from the first UK follow-on damages case resulting from the European trucks cartel is published
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has this week published its judgment in the DAF Trucks v Royal Mail Group / BT case. This is the first UK follow-on damages case resulting from the European trucks cartel to go to trial; and only the second of any follow-on damages claim to be tried in the UK. The CAT concluded that the Infringement caused loss to both Claimants in the form of the Overcharge and rejected all of DAF’s mitigation defences.
Economic Insight were the economic experts on behalf of the Claimants (Royal Mail Group and BT). The full outcome can be found here.
Wessex Water hire EI for critical review of its Business PlanWessex
As Wessex Water develops its plan for the PR24 water price control, Economic Insight will provide an independent critique of the company’s submission to Ofwat and supporting evidence. We’re delighted to be working with Wessex again, and our appointment reflects our track record in helping companies develop class leading regulatory plans.
Economic Insight Promotions
We are delighted to announce the following promotions this year:
Christopher Pickard has been promoted from Principal to Associate Director.
Madeleine Matos has been promoted from Senior Consultant to Principal.
Anthony Zhang, Ellie Clutterbuck and Sarah Barker have been promoted from Consultant to Senior Consultant.
Natalie Luyt and Thomas Elder have been promoted from Analyst to Consultant.
Their promotions recognise the fantastic contributions they have made to Economic Insight through their skills and ambition, and importantly their support for their colleagues and clients.
Well done!