Etienne Pfister

Etienne Pfister is a Partner at RBB Economics, based in Paris, and has over 15 years of experience in competition economics. Before joining RBB in 2022, Etienne was the Chief Economist of the French Competition Authority.

While at the French Competition Authority, Etienne has worked on virtually all investigations involving an economic analysis. These include a vast range of competition cases, comprising horizontal and vertical mergers, abuse of dominance cases (such as predation, loyalty rebates, margin squeezes, discriminatory pricing or access conditions,excessive pricing, exclusivity clauses), vertical restraints (resale price maintenance, price-parity clauses, restrictions on internet sales) and horizontal agreements (information exchanges, estimation of cartel overcharges). His experience also covers a wide spectrum of industries, such as online platforms, telecoms, media and advertising, pharmaceuticals and medical care, fast moving consumer goods, automotive, retail, etc. Etienne was also frequently responsible for the evaluation of damages arising from anticompetitive practices.

Etienne was also in charge of several best practice reports (“soft law”) published by the French Competition Authority on various aspects of competition economics,including a joint report with the CMA on the economics of platforms and aftermarkets, two joint reports with the German Competition Authority on algorithms, big data and competition law, a report on loyalty rebates and a report on the competition law aspects of e-commerce.

Since he joined RBB, Etienne has been involved in cases related to the advertising sector, grocery markets, construction works, telecom industry, luxury products, pay-TV sector, lottery and gaming industry, consumer goods, digital platforms, pharmaceuticals, car-dealing sector. Topics cover merger assessments and notifications, market position evaluation, relevant market definition, damage estimation, vertical restraints, abuses of dominant position/economic dependency, State aid, restrictive practices, buying alliances, information exchanges. Finally, Etienne has also worked on a RBB report for the European Commission on the assessment of entry barriers in merger investigations.

Etienne speaks regularly at competition policy conferences and has been giving lectures in competition economics and competition law for many years in various French universities (Paris II, Science-po). He has also published numerous articles on competition economics. Prior to joining the French Competition Authority, Etienne was associate professor in economics. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics.

A French national, Etienne is fluent in French and English.