Kati Cseres is an Associate Professor of Law at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG) and Head of the EU Law Section at the Department of International and European Law at the University of Amsterdam.  She is Theme leader ‘The Future of European Democracy’  of the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES). Since 2024, she is  Co-Director of The Good Lobby Profs inititiave, which monitors the respect of the rule of law by holding the EU and national institutions and leaders accountable. In 2024, she joined as a Board Member the Inclusive Competition Forum, which is a platform  and think tank connecting he Inclusive Competition Forum is a think tank connecting experts in competition law, with stakeholders working to promote more socially-inclusive competition law and policy in Europe and fairer, more sustainable market capitalism. Since 2024, she acts (togerther with Giacomo Tagiuri and Jan Broulik) as  Head of ASCOLA (Academic Society for Competition Law) Benelux Chapter.

Kati is Editor of the Journal Legal Issues of Economic Integration. 

In 2018 she worked as a Distinguished Guest Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. For 2022, she was selected as a Non-Resident Research Fellow, at the Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago.

Kati has been Non-governmental Adviser to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) between 2014 and 2020. She is a Board Member of the Stichting Ontwikkelingen Mededingingsrecht.  

Kati’s research investigates how law can structure and control uneven power relations between economic, social and political actors. She interrogates how various sub-disciplines of  European law (competition law, consumer law, constitutional law and administrative law), formal and informal institutions shape the oversight of markets. Her work investigates the legal and institutional tools available to identify, manage, and constrain concentrations of power, with a view to ensuring accountability, fairness, and democratic governance in the economy. Her research agenda centers on the fundamental transformations in societies, political systems, and economies that challenge prevailing models of economic law and its enforcement. She examines how these legal frameworks can, and should respond to the growing concentration of political and corporate power, as well as to deepening social inequalities.

Concerning the EU's rule of law crisis, Kati has been investigating how EU competition law with its central constitutional role in the EU’s economic and legal order can play a role in protecting the rule of law in the EU and its Member States. Presenting her research in  the European Parliament she has argued for mainstreaming effective competition law enforcement in the EU's rule of law toolbox. Her publications analyse how (EU) competition law functions as the guarantor of the rule of law in economic activities, and as the accountability mechanism for markets. On her work in the media sector she has been interviewed by the Dutch newspaper, NRC.

In 2019, together with Or Brook (Leed University) she was awarded the UK’s  ESRC Impact Acceleration Account for their 'Priority Setting Project'. Their Policy Report  summarizes their findings providing  a systematic and comprehensive mapping of the (procedural and substantive) priority setting rules and practices guiding the competition authorities in the European Union and the UK. In 2022, the project started a new phase, Priority Setting Project 2.0 in cooperation with UNCTAD Competition and consumer protection , which expands the research to other regions across the globe, focusing on developing countries and indicators of sustainable and inclusive growth.

Kati has extensive experience in training national judges, officials of public administration and civil society organizations in EU competition law, consumer law and EU state aid law. She has participated in the Re-Jus project and co-organized and taught in the EEUStAID project 'Building Central and Eastern European judicial capacities for the enforcement of EU State aid law '.

Kati has been advising and working closely with civil society organizations.  Kati is a founding Member of EMFA Observatory in Hungary with Hungarian media expert organization, Mérték Média Monitor. Since 2023 she co-organizes the annual DMA workshop with ARTICLE19.org. In 2022, she was the main organizer of the first Capacity Building Training for Civil Society Organizations in EU competition law.

Key Publications

Cseres, K.J. and O. Brook (2025) Gender inclusive priority setting in competition law enforcement, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, March 2025. 

Cseres, K.J. and L de Korte, (2025). Participation of third parties in the public enforcement of the Digital Markets Act: between democracy and technocracy, Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, pp.1-26.

Cseres, K.J. (2024). European competition law: an overlooked element of the EU’s rule of law toolbox, Swedish Institute for European Policy, November 2024:23epa.

Cseres, K.J. (2024). The Role of Competition Law in Defending Rule of Law Values in the EU. In: Fasone, C., Dirri, A., Guerra, Y. (eds) EU Rule of Law Procedures at the Test Bench. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60008-1_16

Cseres, K.J. Varju, M., Czina, V., & Várnay, E. (2024). Annulment Actions and the V4: Taking Legislative Conflicts Before the CJEU. Politics and Governance, 12. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.7473

Cseres, K.J. (2024). The Role of Independent Competition Authorities as Quasi-Courts in Defending Rule of Law Values in Europe (September 04, 2024). Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2024-32, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance Research Paper No. 2024-11, Draft Chapter for Judicial Independence, P Bárd, J Kommerdijk (eds.) Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming 2024.

Cseres, K.J. and O Brook, Enforcement Priorities in Developing Countries and Economies in Transition: The Priority Setting Paradox, Forthcoming in: T Cheng, J Nowag, D Waked (eds.), Competition Law in Developing Countries, Edward Elgar Publishers, 2025.

Cseres, K.J.  and O. Brook (2024) Priority Setting as the Blind Spot of Administrative Law Enforcement: A Theoretical, Conceptual, and Empirical Study of Competition Authorities in Europe. Modern Law Review. 

Cseres, K.J. (2024) Feminist Competition Law, Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance Research Paper No. 2023-04, Amsterdam Law School Research Paper No. 2023-43 Draft chapter for Cambridge Handbook on the Theoretical Foundations of Antitrust and Competition Law (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024) ,

Cseres, K.J. (2024) Feminist Antitrust Kluwer Competition Law Blog, 12 January, 2024.

Cseres, K.J.  and O. Brook (2023) The CMA’s New Prioritisation Guidelines: Towards Inclusive and Sustainable Growth? Kluwer Competition Law Blog, 28 November, 2023.

Cseres, K.J. O. Brook, B. Van Rompuy (2023) Abolishing Formal Complaints? Balancing Technical Expertise and Efficiency with Democratic Accountability in the European Commission’s Decision-Making, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2023. 

Cseres, K.J. (2023) Re-Prioritising Referrals under Article 22 EUMR: Consequences for Third Parties and Mutual Trust between Competition Authorities, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, 2023.

Cseres, K.J. (2023) The Role of Competition Lawin Defending Rule of Law Values in the EU, in: Established EU rule of Law Instruments, RED-SPINEL Working Paper.

Cseres, K.J. (2023) with J Bayer, Without Enforcement, the EMFA is Dead Letter, A Proposal to Improve the Enforcement of EMFA, Verfassungsblog, 2023 13 June.

Cseres, K.J. (2023) A versenyhatóságok szerepe a médiapluralizmus védelmében (The role of competition authorities in safeguarding media pluralism), Médiakutató, 2023. ősz XXIV. évf. 3. szám, 15–23. 

Cseres, K. J. (2022). EU Competition Law and Democracy in the Shadow of Rule of Law Backsliding in: “The changing governance of EU competition law: a constitutional challenge” C. Colombo, M. Eliantonio, K. Wright (eds.) Hart Publishing. 2022.

Cseres, K. J. (2022). Intersection of competition and regulation in abuse of dominance and monopolization in: Research Handbook on Abuse of Dominance and Monopolization, P. Akman, O.Brook, K.Stylianou Edward Elgar 2022.

Cseres, K. J. Reyna, A. (2021). EU State Aid Law and Consumer Protection: An Unsettled Relationship in Times of Crisis, Journal of European Competition Law & Practice.

Cseres, K. J. (2020). “Acceptable” cartels at the crossroads of EU competition law and the common agricultural policy, A legal inquiry into the political, economic and social dimensions of (strengthening farmers’) bargaining power, Antitrust Bulletin, pp.1-22.

Cseres, K. J. (2019). Rule of Law Challenges and the enforcement of EU competition law, A case-study of Hungary and its implications for EU law. Competition Law Review, Vo.14(1). pp. 75-99.

Cseres, K. J. (2019)."Consumer Social Responsibility in Dutch Law", Erasmus Law Review, 4, (2019):94-110

Cseres, K. J. (2018). The active energy consumer in EU law. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 9(1).

Cseres, K. J. (2017). Universal Service and Consumer Protection: a paradigm shift in EU law. European Competition and Regulatory Law Review, 4, 1-18.

K.J. Cseres (2017). Rule of law values in the decentralized public enforcement of EU competition law In: The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States’ Compliance, Jakab, A. Kochenov, D. (eds.), Oxford University Press, pp.182-199.

K.J. Cseres, Outhuisje, A. (2017) Parallel enforcement and accountability: the case of EU competition law, in: M. Scholten and M. Luchtman (eds.), Law Enforcement by EU Authorities. Political and judicial accountability in a shared legal order, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.

Cseres, K.J.  (2017). Rule of law values in the decentralized public enforcement of EU competition law In: The Enforcement of EU Law and Values: Ensuring Member States’ Compliance, Jakab, A. Kochenov, D.(eds.),Oxford University Press, pp.182-199.

Cseres, K.J.  & J. Mendes (2014). Consumers’ access to EU competition law procedures: outer and inner limits. Common Market Law Review, 51 (2), 483-521. [go to publisher's site]

Cseres, K.J. (2014). Accession to the EU’s Competition Law Regime: A Law and Governance Approach. Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies, 7 (9), 31-66.

Cseres, K.J. and Balogh, V. (2013), ‘Institutional Design in Hungary: A Case Study of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive’, Journal of Consumer Policy 361, pp. 343-365.

Cseres, K.J. (2010), ‘The impact of Regulation 1/2003 in the New Member States’, Competition Law Review 6(2), pp. 77-121.

Cseres, K.J. (2008), ‘What has competition done for consumers in liberalised markets?’, Competition Law Review 4(2), pp. 77-121.

Cseres, K.J. (2007), ‘The controversies of the consumer welfare standard’, Competition Law Review 3(2), pp. 121-173.

Cseres, K.J. (2007), ‘Multijurisdictional competition law enforcement: the interface between European competition law and the competition laws of the new Member States’, European Competition Journal, 3(2), pp. 465-502.

Blogs

On Verfassungsblog

Working Papers

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=547682

Books

Cseres, K J. Broulík, J  (eds.) Competition Law and Economic Inequality,  Hart Publishing (2022).

Criminalization Of Competition Law Enforcement (2006)

Competition Law and Consumer Protection (2005)

Teaching

Master's programme European Competition Law and Regulation

Principles & Foundations of EU Law, MA

Advanced EU Competition Law, MA

EU Regulated Markets, MA

Kati’s research investigates how law can structure and control uneven power relations between economic, social and political actors. She interrogates how various sub-disciplines of  European law (competition law, consumer law, constitutional law and administrative law), formal and informal institutions shape the oversight of markets. Her work investigates the legal and institutional tools available to identify, manage, and constrain concentrations of power, with a view to ensuring accountability, fairness, and democratic governance in the economy. Her research agenda centers on the fundamental transformations in societies, political systems, and economies that challenge prevailing models of economic law and its enforcement. She examines how these legal frameworks can, and should respond to the growing concentration of political and corporate power, as well as to deepening social inequalities.