Natalie Harsdorf

Natalie Harsdorf is director general of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority. Her work focuses on European and national competition law, competition enforcement, regulation, and digital markets.

Harsdorf joined the authority in 2009, later serving as deputy director general and head of legal services. She has also held assignments with the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Harsdorf chairs the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Working Party on Competition and Regulation, becoming the first Austrian to hold the position. She also represents the European Competition Network on the High-Level Group for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, having been reelected to the group in 2025.

Harsdorf is an honorary professor of European law at the University of Vienna, where she has taught European and competition law. She is also an elected member of the presidential council of the Austrian Society for European Law and a board member of the Austrian Society of Administrative Sciences.

Her honors include Austria’s Lawyer of the Year award in 2022, which made her the first woman in public service to receive the honor, and the 2026 Minerva Award in the Beyond Leader category.

Harsdorf earned a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna and an LL.M. in European law from the College of Europe. She also studied at University College Dublin.