The AECLJ A.S.B.L. is registered in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg as an association sans but lucratif (on a not for profit basis) with the number F14579; its registered address is care of the Cour Supérieure de Justice of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, at 4 Plateau du St Esprit, 1475, Luxembourg.
Christopher now Lord Bellamy, (who was the first President of the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a former judge of the Court of First Instance of the European Communities and the first President of the AECLJ) is the Honorary President of the AECLJ.
Day-to-day management is in the hands of a Management Committee with:
- The President of the AECLJ, Judge Wolfgang Kirchhoff, President of the Cartel Chamber of the Bundesgerichtshof, Germany;
- The Deputy President of the AECLJ, Judge Anne-Marie Witters, President of the Market Court in Brussels, Belgium; she is also the lead EU Co-ordinator;
- The Treasurer of the AECLJ, Judge Mads Bundgaard Larsen, President of the Maritime and Commercial High Court, Denmark;
- The contact judge for Luxembourg, Judge Anick Wolff, Vice President of the Luxembourg District Court; and
- Representing the Secretariat, Dr Adam Scott of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT)
The Management Committee is supported, in Luxembourg, by Panagiotis Zinonos, Référendaire de justice, Cour supérieure de justice of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
The members of the AECLJ have elected an Executive Committee to take overall responsibility for the implementation of the AECLJ’s activities. In addition to the Management Committee, the members of the Executive Committee elected at the annual general meeting in 2024 were the following:
As Secretary General: Charles Dhanowa, Registrar of the CAT
Together with:
Judge Daniel Severinsson – at the Stockholm Patent and Market Court
Judge Iannis Symplis - Council of State, Greece– past host judge
Judge Jaap de Wildt - Supreme Administrative Court for Trade and Industry
Judge Marta Borges Campos, Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court, Portugal
Judge Mercedes Pedraz Calvo - La Audencia Nacional, Spain– past host judge
Judge Myra Raycheva, Supreme Court of Bulgaria;
Judge Peter Roth, Past President and now a chairman of the United Kingdom Competition Appeal Tribunal
Judge Silvia Giani, President of the Enterprise Specialized Section of the Tribunal of Milan, Italy
Judge Skirgailė Žalimienė, Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania
Judge Sylvaine Poillot-Peruzzetto, French Cours de Cassation
In addition Théa Harles-Walch – a founding member of the AECLJ, a former judge of the Cour de Cassation, Luxembourg and a past host judge – was elected an honorary member of the Executive Committee to support the transition to Luxembourg that she has championed.
Since the foundation of the Association, the CAT has acted as the Secretariat and it continues to provide administrative support for its activities. Dr Adam Scott, formerly a founding Member of the CAT and now its Director of Studies and, when intra-EU matters are concerned, Anne-Marie Witters (see above) co-ordinates these activities. The main purpose of the AECLJ is to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the field of competition law among the judiciary across the European Union and elsewhere in Europe thereby promoting a coherency and consistency of approach, particularly in the context of the modernisation of the application of Articles 101 and 102 under EC Regulation 1/2003 and, nowadays, of similar provisions in Member States, in the EEA, in Switzerland and in the United Kingdom.
Regulation 1/2003 “modernised” the enforcement of EU competition law placing a renewed emphasis both on public enforcement by national authorities in the Member States and on private actions in the national courts. Both judicial oversight of the actions of national authorities and conduct of private actions fall to the national judiciaries who now have an increased role in the European system of competition law. After two decades, that Regulation is now being reviewed by the European Commission and the AECLJ is expected to contribute to evaluation and to any revision.
The national competition authorities in the European Union meet regularly under the auspices of the European Competition Network (ECN). No similar institutional arrangement was established by the European Union for national judges. While in other fields of harmonised law the European Commission organises conferences where judges can exchange experience, it acts with restraint in the competition law field because the Commission is a competition authority and is mindful of the need to maintain the proper distance between itself and the European judiciaries. In the light of their increased role, the national judiciaries have particularly felt the need to be able to meet under the auspices of a body such as the AECLJ in order to discuss issues of common concern and “best practice”.
Since, to a large extent, competition law is now applied in Europe by national judges, it is of vital importance that judges dealing with this field of law are able to communicate on an informal level, discussing matters of common concern and enquiring about parallel proceedings. The consistent application of competition law largely depends on the existence of a network to facilitate such an exchange of experience within Europe.