Event
Petersberg Conference Success
Clients and media attend the tenth annual event
Our lawyers and clients attended another very successful conference at the Petersberg Grandhotel, Germany, last week. Clients and international media organisations attended the one-day event, now in its tenth year.
The morning session offered an insight into current thinking on regulatory matters and included panel representatives of German authorities, Andreas Mundt, president of the Federal Cartel Office, Jochen Homann, president of the Federal Network Agency and Professor Achim Wambach, Chairman of the Monopolies Commission.
Freshfields partners’ Juliane Hilf and Thomas Tschentscher, who founded the conference in 2009, moderated a lively discussion, which focused on the current developments in energy, infrastructure and telecommunications.
This included Martin Witt, CEO of 1&1 Telecommunications SE and President of the Association of Telecommunications and Value-Added Service Providers (VATM), and Stefan Kapferer, CEO and Member of the Board Federal Association of the Energy and Water Economy.
During the afternoon panel discussion, Freshfields partners’ Ulrich Scholz and Frank Röhling debated questions around Foreign Investment Control , such as ‘Do we need protection against foreign investors who want to acquire critical infrastructure or technologies in Germany?’ with Karl Wendling, Ministerialdirigent of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Dr. Stefan Mair, Board Member of the Federation of German Industries and Dr. Siegfried Schwung, General Counsel of KUKA AG.
A number of journalists, including from international newswire Thomson-Reuters and national daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, covered the event.
The newly renovate historic hotel provided an impressive settling for the conference with stunning views over the sun-lit valley of the River Rhein.
Partner Juliane Hilf said: "Ten years in and the Petersberg conference still enjoys unabated attention of clients, regulators and the media. Special thanks to all who helped to organize the event especially the think tank including Mina Aryobsei and Johann Ante.
“It is remarkable that we were able to have the Presidents of the Federal Cartel Office, of the Federal Network Agency and the Chairman of the Monopolies Commission speaking at our conference, now for ten years in a row. This proves the relevance of the event and I am looking forward to another round of interesting discussions next year as they all have already raised their interest in participating again", Thomas Tschentscher added.