The Centre for Competition Law & Policy (CCLP) organized a guest lecture on ‘Sustainability and Competition Law’ on November 27, 2021. The lecture was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Julian Nowag. He is an associate professor at Lund University specializing in competition law and Director of the Master programme in European Business Law. He is also a departmental lecturer in competition law at the Faculty of Law at Oxford University and an Associate at the Oxford Centre for Competition Law and Policy as managing editor of The Journal for Antitrust Enforcement. Educated Germany and the UK (LLM in Durham, Master degree (MSt); PhD at Oxford), he is a qualified lawyer in Germany with his professional training focused on competition law including placements at the German Competition Authority, DG Comp (cartels unit) and Allen & Overy’s German antitrust unit.

Hi lecture explored  the interaction between sustainability and competition law. It showed how sustainability features within the substantive application of competition law, highlighting lesser as well as more contentious areas. He described how sustainability can be fostered by competition enforcement against practices hindering sustainability and then illustrated the interaction of competition law and business activities where business activity leads to increased sustainability. Finally, he charted out process-related matters, such as agency objectives, priorities, approval procedures, capacity, fining, and international co-operation. Overall, he argued that while there are still debates, many competition authorities can already consider, knowingly or unknowingly, sustainability matters within their enforcement practice.