On July 11 and 12, 2016, the conference “Competition – New Challenges for Georgia” was held in Borjomi at the Rixos Borjomi Hotel. It was organized by Tbilisi State University with the financial support of Rompetrol Georgia. The speakers of the conference were foreign specialists in competition law: James Hanks, partner at Venable LLP; Robert Davis, counsel at Venable LLP; Bertold Bar-Bouyssiere, partner at DLA Piper; Jan Joachim Dreyer, partner at DLA Piper; Warsha Kale, counsel in the Antitrust and Competition group at Mayer Brown; Alexandra Aninoiu, associate in the Antitrust and Competition group at Mayer Brown’s London office; and Felix Skala, head of the competition law department at Deloitte Legal Germany. Georgian professionals were also among the speakers: Professor David Iakobidze; Irine Chikhladze, first-category adviser of the Legal and Methodological Support Department at the Competition Agency; and Nika Sergia, adviser of the Competition Department at the Competition Agency.
Among the participants of the conference were judges, representatives of the Competition Agency, the Economic Council and the Business Ombudsman, as well as practitioners from different local and international law firms.
After the conference, on July 13, a training session on “Capital Maintenance, Mergers and Competition Principles” was conducted by James Hanks and Robert Davis.
The moderators of the conference were Tbilisi State University professors Giorgi Tsertsvadze and Giorgi Svanadze. Giorgi Tsertsvadze, who is the managing partner of our firm, was actively involved in organizing both the conference and the training. In light of the current situation regarding competition law in Georgia, the main aim of the training and the conference was to raise participants’ awareness and to promote discussion between representatives of governmental and non-governmental sectors on key competition law development issues.
At the end of the event, positive feedback was given by both participants and speakers. The foreign speakers noted several times that the conference was very well organized and that this was a big deal for Georgia. Representatives of the Competition Agency, the Business Ombudsman and the Economic Council confirmed their intention to collaborate with the organizers of the event in the future.
Both the conference and the training were accredited by the Georgian Bar Association, and participants earned a total of 18 credits.
