Competition Economics

Through our investigative work, we identify evidence of violations of competition law across the jurisdictions where we operate. We assist law firms and regulators throughout the process of litigation, from filing to settlement. We are known for our innovative solutions to some of the thorniest problems in competition economics, and for our expertise in identifying and combining data from a variety of sources.

Competition regimes around the world are in a state of flux. In an ever-more consolidated and digital competition landscape, increasingly sophisticated infractions, shifting standards, and new legislative priorities will affect how markets are defined, how harm is quantified, and who can most appropriately bring a claim. We understand that traditional, cookie-cutter approaches will be a poor fit for the most crucial cases of the coming decade. That is why our clients have come to rely on Fideres’ tailored and uniquely entrepreneurial approach to help them carve out new opportunities, solve new problems, and carry cases through to a successful outcome.

For any Competition Economics related enquiries please contact Max Theiler at max.theiler@fideres.com

Team

MAX THEILER

Head of Competition
Director

ROUSLAN HALIL

Economic Consultant
Senior Associate

DATO ARONIA

Economic Consultant
Senior Associate

CHRIS PIKE

Head of Digital Markets
Managing Director

CHRIS RIEVE

Economic Consultant
Associate Director

LUDOVICA PARADISI

Economic Consultant
Associate

MARCO RAGUSA

Economic Consultant
Analyst

EMILY HATCHETT

Research Analyst
Associate

GABRIELE BORTOLOTTI

Economic Consulting
Associate

RAHUL MURALIDHARAN

Economic Consultant
Senior Associate

ANTÓNIO NETO

Economic Consultant
Associate Director

ROSANGELA D’ERCHIA

Economic Consultant
Analyst

ROQUE BECEIRO

Economic Consultant
Analyst

MATT TAVANTZIS

Senior Economic Consultant
Managing Director

PAUL VELLA

Head of Discrimination
Associate Director

Experts

PROF. YANNIS KATSOULACOS

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. XIAOYONG ZHENG

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. WILLIAM B. VOGT

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. ROBERT ROTHSCHILD

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. PATRICIA BORN

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. LUIS CABRAL

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. LOUIS ROSSITER

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. JOHN KAGEL

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. FARASAT BOKHARI

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. DOUG MILLER

Affiliate Academic Expert

PROF. COLIN CARTER

Affiliate Academic Expert

Services

Original Investigations

Cartels

Abuse of dominance and collective abuse of dominance

Attempted monopolization

Excessive pricing

Exclusionary conduct

Refuse to deal

Margin squeeze

Predatory pricing

Resale price maintenance

Non-compete and no-poaching agreements

Market sharing agreements

Creative Problem Solution

In-depth industry analysis (e.g. industry structure, flow of goods/services, key players)

Market definition and SSNIP test

Counterfactual price modelling

‘Plus Factors’ analysis

Parallel price conduct

Pricing data monitoring

Pass-through/pass-on analysis

Demand/supply elasticity analysis

High Quality Expert Work

Expert reports

Expert witness testimony

Merits reports

Plan of allocation and settlement distribution

Damages analysis

Data analysis

Track record

Since the 2008-09 financial crisis, Fideres has historically taken a leading role in the discovery, analysis, and settlement of cases in financial markets, and finance remains the core area of our expertise. Our work has driven cases ranging from the coordinated manipulation of interest rate benchmarks to the inflation of prices in foreign exchange markets to the mis-selling of key debt instruments. Investigations by Fideres continue to shed light on the often subtle ways in which bad actors in this sector collude to game markets and mislead investors. Sample cases include:

SSA Bonds Antitrust Litigation, 1:16-cv-03711

Mancinelli v. Royal Bank of Canada, CV-15-536174-00CP

J Wisbey  & Associates Pty Ltd v UBS AG, VID 567 of 2019

Allianz Global Investors GmbH v. Bank Of America Corporation, 1:18-cv-10364-LGS

Mexican Government Bonds Antitrust Litigation, 1:18-cv-02830

The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited v The Competition Commission Of South Africa, CR212Feb17

FDIC Libor Claims, FL-2017-000002

Australian Securities and Investments Commission v. Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, VID197/2016

SSA Bonds Antitrust Litigation, 1:16-cv-03711-ER

Torus Capital, LLC v. Bank of Nova Scotia, New York Agency, 1:16-cv-05437

Treasury Securities Auction Antitrust Litigation, 1:15-md-02673

Commodity Exchange, Inc., Gold Futures and Options Trading Litigation, 1:14-md-02548

Alaska Electrical Pension Fund v. Bank Of America Corporation, 1:14-cv-07126

Credit Default Swaps Antitrust Litigation, 1:13-md-02476

Graiseley Properties Limited and others v. Barclays Bank PLC, EWHC 3093, 2012 FOLIO 1259

Libor-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, 1:11-md-02262

Fideres has a wealth of experience in analysing competition within digital markets and emerging technologies such as blockchain. From defining markets for multi-sided platforms, to exploring anti-competitive conduct by large firms that benefit from strong network effects and large economies of scale and scope and who set zero prices and extract data. This experience is helping us to investigate and develop cases, and to provide expert testimony to courts and expert advice to clients working on complaints against many of the biggest monopolists in the sector. Sample cases include:

Cherry v. RealPage Inc., 2:22-cv-01618

Floyd v. Amazon.com Inc., 2:22-cv-01599

Affinity Credit Union v. Apple Inc., 4:22-cv-04174

Brown et al v. Amazon.com Inc., 2:22-cv-00965

Forest River Farms v. Deere & Co., 1:22-cv-00188

Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen v. Meta Platforms, Inc. and Others, 1433/7/7/22

Amazon.com, Inc. eBook Antitrust Litigation, 1:21-cv-00351

West et al v. Amazon.com Inc., 2:21-cv-00694

Bookends & Beginnings LLC v. Amazon.com Inc., 1:21-cv-02584

Arbitration Cryptocurrency Dispute

Tether and Bitfinex Crypto Asset Litigation, 1:19-cv-09236

Cameron v. Apple Inc., 4:19-cv-03074-YGR

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, 4:18-cv-02518

Fideres has been crucial to the filing and prosecution of a number of high-profile US commodities cases. Our successes in this area have included our novel microeconomic analysis of pricing and cost structures in the meatpacking and DRAM industries, and our use of complex auction pricing data from precious metal futures markets to show how these commodities were systematically overpriced by cartels. Sample cases include:

Peterson v. Agri Stats, Inc., 0:19-cv-01129

Turkey Antitrust Litigation, 1:19-cv-08318

Pork Antitrust Litigation, 0:18-cv-1776

JPMorgan Precious Metals Spoofing Litigation, 1:18-cv-10356

London Silver Fixing v. London Silver Fixing, 4-mc-02573-VEC

Commodity Exchange, Inc., Gold Futures and Options Trading Litigation, 14-md-02548-VEC

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare markets can seem as intricate and opaque as they are vital to consumers wellbeing, which makes them crucial sectors for antitrust scrutiny. Our analysis of drug pricing data helps to identify the markets in which pharmaceutical manufacturers collude to raise prices, and our expert testimony on the economics of drug industry helps plaintiffs recover damages. In healthcare markets, Fideres has led pioneering work on market definition and overcharge analysis in the increasingly-concentrated and expensive regional hospital markets of the United States. Sample cases include:

Snow v. Align Technology, Inc., 3:21-cv-03269

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority v. Mylan N.V., 1:20-cv-01342

Tulsa Firefighters Health and Welfare Trust v. Allergan PLC, 2:16-cv-01388

EpiPen ERISA Litigation (Klein v. Prime Therapeutics, LLC), 0:17-cv-01884

Hospital Monopolization Antitrust Class Action, 16-CVS-16404

Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 178 Health & Welfare Trust Fund v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., 2:17-cv-01361

Neca-Ibew Wefare Trust Fund v. Actavis Holdco U.S., Inc., 2:17-cv-00629

Teamsters Local Union No. 727 Health & Welfare Fund v. Mylan, Inc., 3:17-cv-01124

Neca-Ibew Welfare Trust Fund v. Teligent, Inc., 1:16-cv-09398

Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation (Digoxin), 2:16-md-02724

Neca-Ibew Welfare Trust Fund v. Akorn, Inc., 1:16-cv-08109

News and Research

Filter

Research

It Rolls Down Hill

September 8, 2023
How Reddit abuses of its monopoly power to fuel vertical expansion.
News

Gabriele Bortolotti Interviews Professor Eric Posner

August 31, 2023
Fideres’s Associate, Gabriele Bortolotti, interviewed Professor Eric Posner, the Kirkland and Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago. Gabriele, who is a University of Chicago alumnus, conducted this…
News

Fideres’s Head of Digital Markets, Chris Pike, Commented In The Financial Times On Mobile Prices Increases and the Vodafone/Three Merger

July 19, 2023
Dr. Chris Pike commented in a Financial Times article on the implications of mid-contract price increases by UK mobile network operators for the CMA's assessment of the proposed Vodafone/Three merger.…
Research

The Bottleneck On Justice

July 19, 2023
What Do UK Mobile Contract Price Rises Tell Us About The Bottleneck On Justice? Following news coverage on the role of profits in driving UK inflation, including the telecoms price…
News

Fideres’s Head of Digital Markets, Chris Pike, Commented In The Guardian On Mobile And Broadband Prices Increase

June 28, 2023
Dr. Chris Pike comments on the competitiveness of the UK mobile network operator market in a Guardian article. This comes over two years after Fideres notified Ofcom and the CMA…
Research

Hello? Is Ofcom There?

April 19, 2023
Key Points Fideres’s original investigation uncovers anticompetitive and discriminatory overcharge by UK landline providers - which Ofcom has overlooked since at least 2018. Fideres has notified Ofcom of this potential…
News

Potential Abuse of Dominant Position by UK Water Companies

March 6, 2023
Fideres’ research on Potential Abuse of Dominant Position by UK Water Companies features in the Financial Times article. Read the full article here.
Research

More Than Poultry Profits

December 14, 2022
Fideres research shows that the market appears to be plagued by a monopolist, exploiting a dominant position to increase prices and reduce output.
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Dan BrockettPartner, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

“Fideres provided us with innovative quantitative analysis that was critical for building this CDS anti-trust case against major dealers. In addition to... [quantifying] the amount of damages, they clearly briefed me and my team on the technical aspects of the CDS market.”

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Jeremy LiebermanManaging Partner, Pomerantz LLP

“Fideres have provided our firm with input on various aspects of 10b5 claims, including class-wide damages and market efficiency assessments. They are responsive and their reports clear and to the point.”

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Bill SchervishDirector, Labaton Sucharow

“I have engaged Fideres on several securities fraud cases. They have provided our firm with prompt and precise event studies, even in non-standard cases that required innovative approaches.”

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Philip YoungPartner, Cooke, Young & Keidan LLP

“Fideres combines top class financial knowledge with a creative approach in order to provide innovative insights into LIBOR.... They have thoroughly researched and are leading experts on the technical aspects of LIBOR and are professional, reliable and a pleasure to work with.”

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Michael EisenkraftPartner, Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll PLLC

“Over the years I have worked closely with Fideres’s research team to investigate new antitrust matters. Their novel investigative approach has led us to work together on several new potential cartel cases and assess their viability at an early stage.”

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Michael SternhellDirector, Burford Capital LLC

“We have worked with Fideres on several complex securities matters. They have assisted with damages modeling and estimation at the client-outreach stage through to claims filing, in mediation and during the settlement process. Fideres has extensive experience in damage quantification across security types and is a very reliable partner to work with.”

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John DayDirector, DaySparkes Ltd

“We have worked with Fideres in relation to several interest rate misselling matters. Their consultants provided us with effective guidance on a variety of aspects, ranging from the valuation of financial instruments, to the bank’s conduct in relation to the... pricing of such instruments.”

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Sharif ShivjiBarrister, 4 Stone Buildings

““I have always found Fideres to be excellent experts. Their work is thoughtful, accurate and displays their valuable real world market experience. They understand the role of an expert in litigation well.””

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Laura PosnerPartner, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC

“Fideres has consistently produced event studies reports within 24-hours of the request. The speed of the turnaround time has been impressive. They have provided useful insights and charts to explain complex concepts involved in securities litigation filings.”

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David KovelPartner, Kirby McInerney LLC

“We have used Fideres’s expertise in several commodity market and benchmark manipulation cases. Their knowledge of the financial sector, in particular, has been... valuable to the development and success of the matters we have engaged them on.”