Antitrust and Competition

Our team of economists has provided expert advice and testimony in hundreds of complex antitrust matters and has assisted clients with many of the highest-profile antitrust actions in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and other geographies. 

With a reputation for robust and insightful analysis, we regularly advise companies, law firms, policymakers, regulators, and courts on economic issues in all types of antitrust cases spanning litigation, mergers, and market investigations.

We have a strong global team of economists and econometricians who use a combination of leading industrial organization theory and sophisticated economic, econometric, and financial analysis techniques to ensure that our clients receive the highest level of support through all the phases of a case.

Antitrust Class Actions

AlixPartners economists advise on the whole spectrum of issues that arise in antitrust class action cases, including assessing commonality of impact on a class-wide basis, establishing liability, estimating aggregate damages, and assisting with damages distribution issues. We have advised on some of the most seminal class action cases in the U.K. and the U.S. covering a variety of sectors including technology, transport, and regulated utilities. 

We apply a combination of economic theory and quantitative techniques to answer key questions at the pre-certification stage such as the feasibility of a damages estimation methodology that can be used to estimate aggregate damages on a class or sub-class basis and to evaluate the availability of credible evidence to conduct such an analysis. We then employ facts-based economics evidence and sophisticated econometric techniques, supported by damages estimates. The results of this analysis are presented in expert reports, oral presentations, depositions, and trial testimony that can be readily understood by both economists and non-economists. 

Antitrust class action disputes, in particular consumer class actions, often require working with large transaction datasets. We work with our in-house data analytics team to efficiently analyze such datasets and use them for econometric modelling to produce robust damages estimates. 

Corporate Litigation

Our economists advise both claimants and defendants in corporate litigation and class actions. We have extensive experience in both standalone and follow-on cases covering conduct and damages estimation. We can advise you on the economics of:

• Anti-competitive agreements between competitors, such as price fixing, information sharing, or market sharing arrangements (horizontal agreements)
• Anti-competitive agreements between suppliers and customers, such as tying, selective distribution, exclusive supply, or resale price maintenance (vertical agreements)
• Exclusionary conduct through tying and bundling, predatory pricing, conditional rebates, or other pricing arrangements
• Exploitative conduct, excessive pricing, and unfair trading

We can support our clients through all the phases of a litigation including initial risk assessments and claim valuations, shaping case strategy, defining disclosure requirements, assisting with settlement negotiations, preparing expert reports, presenting expert evidence, and giving testimony in court. 

Investigations 

Some antitrust and regulatory authorities have powers to investigate markets where particular market features may give rise to anti-competitive effects which might not be captured by other antitrust laws or regulation. There may be no wrongdoing by firms in terms of unlawful conduct, but there may still be adverse effects on competition which give rise to significant consumer harm. As such, the focus of these investigations is often upon industry-wide practices that appear to be harming competition, rather than the behavior of a specific firm or firms. We advise companies that are affected by such market investigations by conducting analysis of the relevant economic issues and assisting them in responding to requests for information from regulatory authorities and making other submissions as required.

We also advise companies that are specifically being investigated for alleged or potential breaches of antitrust law. We help with assessment of exposure so that the client can make informed decisions as regards settlement. We assist the clients with responding to the authorities’ requests for information and making any other relevant submissions.  We also act for interested third parties, focusing on making evidence-based submissions to inform antitrust authorities’ investigations. 

Mergers

AlixPartners economists have extensive experience supporting clients with merger investigations, both for merging parties and third parties interested in a merger. Our experience spans across mergers in many different sectors and at different phases. We can advise on the antitrust aspects of a transaction from a pre-merger phase straight through to completion as well as design of remedies. We develop a deep understanding of the relevant industry, the key drivers of competition, and the process by which competitive variables, such as prices, product characteristics, quality, and innovation are determined. Within this framework, we design and implement economic analyses – often involving complex econometrics – to assess the competitive effects of the transaction. 

In particular, we can assist with:

• Conducting a pre-merger review of potential antitrust issues, in advance of notification to regulatory authorities
• Analyzing antitrust implications during an investigation by a regulatory authority.
• Supporting clients throughout the merger investigation process, including responding to requests for information from the relevant government agencies with data preparation and production, as well as making active submissions when required.
• Designing proposed remedies and presenting them to the relevant authorities.