by Ken Lopez
CEO & Founder
A2L Consulting
Since antitrust litigation is inherently complex and juries frequently have to decide antitrust cases, litigation graphics in these cases are especially important. Quite often, sums in the nine or even ten figures can be at issue in a major antitrust case – or corporate executives can be charged with criminal antitrust violations that can land them in federal prison if they are convicted.
Antitrust cases can be brought by the government – including the U.S. Department of Justice, which has the ability to bring criminal antitrust cases; the Federal Trade Commission; and state attorneys general. They can also be brought by private parties that allege that they were damaged monetarily by a price-fixing or similar conspiracy, by a merger or acquisition, or by some other possible antitrust violation.
We work, in different cases, for the government and for corporations that have been accused by the government or by other corporations or individuals of entering into price-fixing conspiracies, engaging in cartel activity, or planning a merger or acquisition that is likely to reduce competition in a particular industry.
Like patent litigation, which in recent years has begun to overlap with antitrust litigation, antitrust cases require special assistance from those familiar with modern trial presentation and litigation graphics.
Often a conspiracy must be proved by inference because conspirators understandably try not to leave a clear paper or electronic record of their conspiracy. Accordingly, when we are on the side that is trying to show that a conspiracy existed, we create convincing antitrust litigation graphics that set forth the time and participants of key emails and telephone calls from which an illegal conspiracy can be inferred. Courts have made it clear that juries are allowed to infer the existence of a conspiracy from repeated contacts between corporations and the corporations’ behavior at the time. We put that information in front of a jury in a very convincing way. See these antitrust litigation graphics below:
If we are on the plaintiff side in a class v. corporation dispute, our work is similar to a criminal antitrust case. However one obvious difference is that our focus in a civil dispute is on proving causation and damages, not the elements of a crime. The antitrust litigation graphics below helped establish the existence of conspiracy by looking at the timing of price change announcements among a group of competitors in one industry:
A price-fixing conspiracy often involves a complex web of participants, all of whom are interrelated in some way and all of whom must coordinate their activities. Our litigation graphics make it easy to understand how a conspiracy got started, who was involved, and how the various parties are related to each other.
In cases involving the Hatch-Waxman Act and issues involving the expiration of pharmaceutical patents and competition between branded drug companies and generic manufacturers, our antitrust litigation graphics can illuminate a complicated industry and a complex regulatory scheme as below:
Other helpful resources on A2L Consulting's site related to antitrust litigation graphics:
- Download The BIG Interactive Litigation E-Book
- Claim a free subscription to this blog
- Request a conflicts check
- Learn what 20 questions you must ask a trial technician before working with them
- See an example of an antitrust litigation mindmap (a litigation strategy planning tool we use at A2L)
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