Description of topic

The objective is to foster discussion on a societally relevant and controversial topic, namely the regulation of online platforms or service providers that are currently being discussed by the European Commission. We aim looking at this phenomenon holistically. In particular, the Digital Services Act provides new draft rules for e-commerce, among others with a goal to increase transparency for consumers. The recently Digital Single Market Directive has added a new liability regime for online service providers that host copyright infringing material. In addition, non-personal data regulation and the role online platforms in that context are highly relevant. Our goal is to generate ideas, filter out the best and discuss ways to implement them.

The format of the roundtable is informal, taking the shape of a debate where participants come together to reach a solution, in a dialogue with each other and the audience. Our panelists consist of 4 bachelor students (3rd year) from the course Intellectual Property and the Digital Single Market, Prof. Noam Shemtov (Queen Mary University of London), Dr. Caroline Caufmann, Dr. Catalina Goanta and Dr. Kalpana Tyagi. Dr. Anke Moerland will be chairing the roundtable.

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Profile of the speakers

Caroline Caufmann is an Associate Professor at Maastricht University, a visiting professor at the University of Hasselt, a member of the Flying Faculty of the China-EU School of Law, an assessor at the Belgian competition authority and a lawyer. Caroline is coordinator of the Research Program General Law of Obligations and Contracts of the Ius Commune Research School and author of numerous contributions to national and international journals dealing with issues of contract law, consumer law and competition law.

Catalina Goanta is Assistant Professor in Private Law at Maastricht University.  She is also a non-residential fellow of the Stanford Transatlantic Technology Law Forum. Her research follows three main themes: Content/web monetization and social media governance; Privacy, cryptography and decentralization; and Digital monitoring tools for consumer protection.

Noam Shemtov is currently a Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law and Deputy Head of CCLS (Queen Mary University of London). He lectures in areas of intellectual property, creative industries and technology and his research interests are also focused in these fields. Noam has led research projects and studies funded by UK Research Councils and by industry, national, supranational and commercial organizations, such as CreativeWorks London, CISAC, Microsoft, WIPO, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).  Noam also holds visiting appointments by Spanish and Dutch universities, where he lectures regularly in areas pertaining to intellectual property, creative industries and technology. He is a qualified solicitor both in the UK and in Israel.

Kalpana Tyagi is Assistant Professor of Intellectual Property and Competition Law in the European and International Law Department, Maastricht University. She holds a multidisciplinary PhD (summa cum laude) from the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich where she worked as Max Planck Fellow for Innovation and Competition until 2015. Kalpana’s main areas of interest relate to the interface of intellectual property rights and competition law, particularly in the context of digitalization.

Profile of the students

Daria Baltag is currently in her final year finishing the European Law School bachelor. Her interests are in Art Law and Intellectual Property Law (most notably Trademarks and Copyrights). Daria is currently writing her thesis considering the use of personal data as a form of currency within the Digital Single Market, asking the question of whether consumers know what they’re giving away and do current protections go far enough to protect manipulative behaviours from companies. As a member of the Friday Fortnightly team, and  the Innovator's Legal Clinic, Daria is fully motivated in pursuing a career in the IP field.

Natalie Benou is a 20-year-old third year ELS student from Greece. She is interested in intellectual property law and law and technology in general, which is why she is a member of the TILC legal clinic and is also coordinating the IP talks event for this academic year. At the same time, she is participating in the MaRBLe excellency program for cybersecurity and the law observatory, as well as working as a Law student ambassador to assist and guide prospective law students.

Milica Mijajlovic is a Montenegrin student, currently completing her first bachelor’s degree in European law. Since the young age, Milica was always passionate about art and fashion. During her studies in Switzerland, she has done multiple projects on the connection between law, fashion, and economics, through which she fell in love with Intellectual Property Law. During her second year of university, she wrote a paper on the topic on Fashion and Intellectual Property Law where she discussed how sufficiently are copyrights, design protection and trademarking used for protecting the fashion products under the European Union law. In her free time, you can find her researching and discussing with her colleges the latest IP and economic developments in the fashion and art industry. The dream of this young Montenegrin is to stay in the European Union and work behind the scenes as a legal consultant for some of the biggest luxury fashion companies in the world.

Rémi Saidane is a student following the European Law School programme of the University of Maastricht. He is also completing a degree in French law at Paris II Panthéon-Assas University, France. He worked as a consultant intern in the Fintech and Blockchain department of Ravet & Associés, a leading banking law firm in Paris, France. He also worked as a legal consultant on Fintech issues for Metalaw Avocats in Paris, France. He is currently an editor at the ELSA Maastricht Law Review.