Profile
Aline specialises in competition policy, and in media and technology markets. Her work concentrates on competition analysis in the context of competition investigations, mergers and litigations across Europe, but also includes impact assessments, regulatory reviews and consumer policy. She has advised clients across a broad range of sectors, with a particular focus on media, technology and digital markets as well as pharmaceuticals and retail.Selected project experience
- Advising a comparison website with respect to a complaint about supplier policies to restrict access to price data (2015–)
- Provided training on antitrust in digital markets to judges from across Europe (2018)
- Advised Which? on the economic assessment of consumer data in digital markets (2018)
- Led a study for a European media industry on the design of a data platform that accounts for competition concerns (2016–2017)
- Advised a German manufacturer on the damages arising from the German sugar cartel (2016–2017)
- Advised Unwired Planet in its successful defence against antitrust allegations brought by Huawei in the context of a FRAND dispute (2014–16)
- Advised Virgin Media on a competition complaint to Ofcom in the UK pertaining to an Article 101 TFEU issue with the sale of broadcast rights (2014–16)
- Led a study on the potential effects of a regulatory change in a UK media sector (2015)
- Advised Google on the effects of online platforms perceived by consumers (2015)
- Led a study on consumers’ valuations of product attributes (2015)
- Advised on the economic effects of Virgin Media’s network expansion (2015)
- Advised Google on the economic impact of intermediary liability (2014–15)
- Prepared an assessment of the risk that the CMA would find competition issues in local markets, for a retail client considering a merger in the UK (2014)
- Advised on the geographic market definition for a merger of two agricultural companies before the Federal Cartel Office in Germany (2014)
- Advised a retail company with respect to a competition investigation by the Belgian Competition Authority (2014)
- Assisted the independent expert in an abuse of dominance case before the Austrian Cartel Court involving long-term ‘take-or-pay’ gas contracts (2013–14)
- Advised British Polythene Industries as the defendant in a follow-on damages case in the London High Court (2013–14)
- Advised Pinewood Healthcare in relation to its damages claim against Reckitt Benckiser (2013–14)
- Assisted Dr Helen Jenkins in a London Court of International Arbitration case involving quantification of damages in a commodity sector (2013–14)
- Advised a pharmaceutical company with respect to an investigation by the UK Office of Fair Trading (2013)
- Advised AstraZeneca in defending against a damages claim by a generic entrant arising from an IP litigation (2013)
Selected publications
- Blankertz, A. and Shier, G. (2016), ‘One price for all? Differentiated pricing in online markets’, Competition Law Journal, 15:4, pp. 248–58.
- Noble, R. and Blankertz, A. (2014), ‘The effective use of screening tools to detect cartels’, Competition Law Journal, 13:1, pp. 120–30.
Qualifications
- MA HSG Economics, University of St Gallen, Switzerland
- BA Politics and Economics, University of Münster, Germany