Biography: Competition Economics

Dr Rainer Nitsche is an expert in providing economic advice in competition and litigation cases before the European Commission and national competition authorities in Germany, Austria, the UK and the Netherlands. He has 18 years of experience supporting clients in all fields of competition policy enforcement, including cartel and abuse of dominant position cases and merger control (Phase I and Phase II investigations). In addition, he has advised on a variety of regulation issues in network industries (transport, telecommunications, postal services and electricity).

Besides renowned law firms, his clients have also included the European Commission and national competition authorities. Dr Nitsche has extensive experience as a testifying expert. He has acted as court expert for the Austrian Cartel court in eight merger and antitrust proceedings. He has investigated competition issues for companies in the following industries: automotive (Belron, Daimler, Ford, Iveco Magirus, Magna, Porsche), chemicals (Degussa, Merck), consumer goods (Beiersdorf, Dr Oetker, Garmin, Procter & Gamble), energy (Nuon, Ruhrkohle AG, RWE, Vattenfall), industrial goods (building materials, construction, copper, scrap, steel, vacuum pumps, waste incineration plants), media and advertisement (ARD, JCDecaux, Kabel BW, Liberty Global, ProSiebenSat1, RTL), retail (Edeka, REWE), telecommunications (Cosmote, Deutsche Telekom, OTE, Slovak Telekom, T-Mobile) and transport (airports, aviation, bus, maritime, rail). He has advised several European national governments and state-aid recipients.

Prior to his work for ECA Economics, Dr Nitsche was vice president in the competition practice and director of the Brussels office of CRA International. Prior to his five years in Brussels, he worked as an economic consultant at Price Waterhouse and Arthur Andersen in London and Berlin.