Our Curious Amalgam

Singapore's Competition and Consumer Commission — CCS — has been enforcing competition law for roughly two decades and more recently consumer protection laws as well. How does a small, open, trade-dependent city-state design and enforce a competition regime that punches above its weight — and what does that mean for global practitioners? Mr. Loke Shiu Meng, Assistant Chief Executive of the CCS overseeing Legal, Enforcement, and Consumer Protection, joins Subrata Bhattacharjee and Anora Wang to discuss Singapore's enforcement arc, its voluntary merger regime, the agency's push against dark patterns and unfair trade practices, and how CCS navigates its role as a neutral hub in an increasingly fractured geopolitical landscape.
With special guest:
Loke Shiu Meng, Assistant Chief Executive, Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS)

Related Links:
CCS's media release on the issuance of the Fast Track Guidelines
CCS's media release on revisions to our Merger Guidelines
Singapore High Court Decision in CCS v. CNL Logistic Solutions Pte Ltd and Gilmon Transportation & Warehousing Pte Ltd [2026]
CCS's media release on the High Court Decision
Hosted by:
Subrata Bhattacharjee, Borden Ladner Gervais and Anora Wang, Arnold & Porter

Competition law isn't just for antitrust lawyers anymore—it's increasingly a boardroom issue. What questions should directors be asking to ensure their companies are identifying and managing competition risk before it becomes a crisis? Julie Goshorn, whose career spans the DOJ, FTC, private practice at Arnold & Porter, and global in-house leadership at Visa, speaks with Jeny Maier and Anora Wang about why corporate boards should view antitrust as an enterprise risk alongside cybersecurity, financial controls, and compliance. Listen to this episode to learn about the board's oversight role, lessons from recent Delaware fiduciary duty cases, and the practical questions every director should be asking to help protect long-term enterprise value.
With special guest:
Julie Goshorn

Related Links:
Julie Goshorn on LinkedIn 
Hosted by:
Jeny Maier, Axinn and Anora Wang, Arnold & Porter

Digital financial services are transforming the way we bank, borrow, save, invest, and make payments. But are these innovations creating more competitive markets, or are they simply fostering new forms of market power? On this episode of Our Curious Amalgam, we speak with Beatriz Marques of the OECD Competition Division about the evolving competitive landscape in digital finance. We explore the role of FinTechs, incumbent banks, card networks, and BigTech platforms; the importance of data, interoperability, and open banking; and what competition authorities can do to foster innovation while protecting competition and consumers in an increasingly digital financial ecosystem.
With special guest:
Beatriz Marques, OECD
 
Related Links:
OECD (2025), "Competition in mobile payment services", OECD Roundtables on Competition Policy Papers, No. 324, OECD Publishing, Paris
OECD (2025), "Balancing prudential regulation and competition considerations in banking", OECD Roundtables on Competition Policy Papers, No. 329, OECD Publishing, Paris
OECD (2026), "Banking Unbundled: Competition in the Age of Digitalisation"
Hosted by:
Anora Wang, Arnold & Porter and Lexi Michaud, Fried Frank

Vertical merger review has long rested on the principle that competitive harm is most likely when a merged firm has both the ability and incentive to foreclose rivals, yet courts and enforcers often struggle to establish that harm empirically. But can potentially anticompetitive vertical integrations be screened in advance using observable market characteristics? Charles Hodgson, Assistant Professor of Economics at Yale University and Faculty Research Fellow at the NBER, and Shilong Sun, Senior Economist at Compass Lexecon, join Anora Wang and Panos Dimitrellos to discuss how evidence from the Chinese film industry sheds light on when vertical foreclosure is likely to emerge, why downstream concentration and upstream product substitutability matter, and how these findings may inform modern merger review across industries ranging from movie theaters to digital platforms. Listen to this episode to learn more about how a practical screening framework for vertical mergers could help identify when foreclosure concerns are most likely to arise and provide enforcers and practitioners with a more evidence-based approach to assessing competitive harm.
With special guests:
Charles Hodgson, Professor, Yale and Shilong Sun, Dr., Compass Lexecon

Related Links:
Charles Hodgson bio
Shilong Sun bio 
Heterogeneity in Vertical Foreclosure: Evidence from the Chinese Film Industry 
Hosted by:
Panos Dimitrellos, Secretariat Economists and Anora Wang, Arnold & Porter

AI is transforming all areas of legal practice. But what are the special issues in antitrust? Daniel Schwarz, CEO and Founder of CompetitionAI and a former antitrust attorney at Clifford Chance and the IMF, joins Matthew Hall and Alysha Pannu to discuss the use of AI in antitrust now and in the future and its impact on lawyers and competition authorities. Listen to this episode to learn more about CompetitionAI and the impact of AI on antitrust practice and enforcement.
With special guest:
Daniel Schwarz, co-founder, CompetitionAI

Related Links:
CompetitionAI website

Hosted by:
Matthew Hall, McGuireWoods and Alysha Pannu, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt