Vice President Cyril Hariton Speaks at Global Competition Law Centre Lunch Talk on Booking and eTraveli
Event: Lessons from the European Union General Court Judgement on Booking’s Acquisition of eTraveli Date: 14 September 2026 Host: Global Competition Law Centre Location: Brussels, Belgium
Analysis Group Vice President Cyril Hariton will join Marion Bailly (DG COMP) to discuss the European Union (EU) General Court’s decision on Booking Holdings’ acquisition of eTraveli, published on September 9. The judgement follows the European Commission’s prohibition of the acquisition in 2023 due to concerns over the transaction’s impact on Booking’s “dominant position” in the online travel agency (OTA) market and the expansion of its “ecosystem” of services (see the EC’s press release). Dr. Hariton will offer an independent perspective on the economic arguments raised in the judgement and potential implications for merger control in Europe, pending the upcoming revised EU Merger Guidelines.
The talk will be moderated by antitrust lawyer Vanessa Turner (O’Melveny & Myers) and hosted by the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) of the College of Europe.
Associated People
Cyril Hariton
Vice PresidentDr. Hariton specializes in the application of industrial organization and competition economics to merger control, antitrust and competition, state aid, and regulatory matters, including extensive work in large-scale merger investigations and competition litigation before the European Commission and national competition authorities. He previously served as an economist at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP). Dr. Hariton has advised on more than 75 merger reviews, including those of Halliburton/Baker Hughes, Dow/DuPont, Bayer/Monsanto, and Salesforce/Slack by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as antitrust cases involving Intel, Servier, and Glaxo Wellcome. His experience includes work on state aid, damages estimation, and regulatory proceedings, as well as work on Digital Services Act fee challenges and foreign subsidies regulation. Dr. Hariton also brings distinctive expertise as a forensic IT expert, having assisted in multiple inspections and investigations. He has published in journals including the Review of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Public Economic Theory, the Journal of Regulatory Economics, the Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Revue Économique, and Recherches Économiques de Louvain, and has contributed to European Commission consultations and newsletters. Dr. Hariton previously served as an assistant professor at Toulouse Business School and as a research fellow at UCLouvain.