g_niels@oxera.com
+44 (0) 1865 253 004
Location:
Oxford and Brussels
Language skills:
English, Dutch, German and Spanish
Gunnar leads Oxera’s work in competition policy, with 15 years’ experience in the field covering mergers, agreements, abuse of dominance, damages and state aid. He has advised companies such as Diageo, Ryanair, Belgacom, MasterCard and London Stock Exchange, as well as government bodies such as the Portuguese Competition Authority, DG Competition (EU), and OPTA (the Dutch postal and telecoms regulator). Gunnar has acted as expert in the UK High Court and has presented at hearings across a range of jurisdictions, including the Netherlands, South Africa and Venezuela. Gunnar is currently a non-governmental adviser (NGA) to the UK for the International Competition Network (ICN) Working Group on Unilateral Conduct. He is on the Advisory Board of the Competition Law Journal, has been guest editor for the Antitrust Bulletin, and has published in many other journals, including European Journal of Political Economy, European Journal of Law and Economics, Review of Network Economics and Journal of Competition Law and Economics. Before joining Oxera, Gunnar was deputy head of the Economics Directorate at Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission. He is listed in The International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists 2009.
Project experience
- Economic advice to defendant in damages claim following a European Commission cartel finding (2010)
- Expert report for claimant in follow-on cartel damages case before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (2010)
- Economic expert in international arbitration in IT and mobile telephony sector (2010)
- Led the Oxera team that produced the report for the European Commission on quantifying antitrust damages which was published in January 2010 (2009–10)
- Advice to Telefónica during inquiry by the Spanish Competition Commission into agreements in the broadband and pay-TV market (2009)
- Expert testimony for the liquidators of Nationwide Airlines in abuse-of-dominance case before the Competition Tribunal in South Africa (2009)
- Advice and testimony for Angel Trains during the Competition Commission market investigation into rolling-stock leasing (2007–09)
- Expert testimony for Turf TV in UK High Court dispute with bookmakers (2007–08)
- Advice to Belgacom on phase-2 acquisition of Scarlet NV (2008)
- Support to Fortis during DG Competition clearance of €72 billion takeover of ABN Amro (2007)
- Expert testimony for Arriva in UK High Court case on predatory pricing (2007)
- Expert for easyJet in UK High Court case on vertical agreement with Liverpool Airport (2007)
- Assistance to Unilever during a supermarket merger under review by the Dutch Competition Authority (NMa) (2006)
- Advice to the Portuguese Competition Authority in relation to the proposed acquisition of Portugal Telecom by Sonae (2006)
- Advice to Ulster Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland in relation to the Competition Commission inquiry into personal current accounts in Northern Ireland (2005–06)
- Economic advice to MasterCard during OFT and EU investigations into interchange fees (2000–06)
- Expert testimony for Diageo in an abuse-of-dominance investigation in the spirits market by the Venezuelan competition authority (2005)
- External peer review of the market investigations undertaken by OPTA under the new EU regulatory framework for electronic communications services (2005)
- Expert statement on behalf of Interpay (Dutch debit card system) in relation to the excessive-pricing investigation by the NMa (2003–05)
- Highly influential study for the Financial Services Authority on soft commissions and bundled brokerage services (2003–04)
Qualifications
PhD Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
MSc Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
