ENTraNCE – Training for national judges

ENTraNCE is a training for national judges from EU Member States interested in deepening their knowledge of the interplay between IP rights and EU competition law. 

Following the successful organisation of the previous fourteen editions, the Centre for a Digital Society welcomes applications from judges of EU Member States to participate in ENTraNCE for Judges, a project co-financed by the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission. 

The training is addressed to 26 national judges from EU Member States interested in deepening their knowledge and sharing experience on recent developments in the interplay between intellectual property (IP) rights and EU competition rules. 

Key features of the programme:

1. Residential training at the EUI campus in Florence: all selected judges attend three days of advanced training on the recent developments in on both cross-cutting IP and EU competition law issues and sector-specific ones of the highly innovative industries.
2. Interactive classes featuring frontal lectures and group exercises under the lead of prominent competition scholars with an interdisciplinary approach in law and economics;
3. Online activities: participants access background materials, including readings and lectures recordings on a dedicated e-learning platform;
4. Coaching: the ENTraNCE scientific team supports individual participants who have theoretical and practical questions concerning real competition law issues;
5. Final Workshop:  all selected judges will be invited to attend the Final Workshop in person, at the premises of the European University Institute in Florence. During the workshop, the selected participants will present a case note summarising a national ruling in the field of EU competition law.

Main topics of discussion

• The complementary interplay of IP rights and Competition Law
• Agreements involving IP rights
• IP-related dominance abuses

This executive training programme is organised by the Centre for a Digital Society and financially supported by DG Competition of the European Commission, which funds the participation to the training program for a selected group of national judges. The funding for this training program has been awarded by DG Competition based on a competitive selection procedure.

ENTraNCE for Judges draws exclusively on the academic expertise of the Centre, which operates autonomously and in adherence to the EUI Guidelines on Ethics and Integrity in Academic Research and the EUI General Principles concerning the Receipt of External Funds.  The CDS underscores the deliberate exclusion of its market donors from the process of designing or administering courses aimed at public officials. In particular, the EUI Funding Committee regularly scrutinises any external funding from private donors received by the CDS. The CDS academic team members, members of the CDS Scientific Committee, other renowned academics, as well as judges from the EU Court of Justice and national courts are usually appointed as instructors at the residential training of ENTraNCE for Judges. Occasionally, professionals with teaching experience may also be invited as instructors in their personal capacity, whenever their specific experience can provide an added value to the course.