ECOMMERCE ANTITRUST EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTING AND TRIAL TESTIMONY

Any eCommerce antitrust expert witness consultant can tell you that online retail and shopping giants, along with changing dynamics in retail and online distribution markets, have catalyzed increasing antitrust scrutiny in recent years. When these companies become ensnared in litigation or regulatory probes, an eCommerce antitrust expert witness who specializes in the unique competitive forces at play will often be brought in to look at all sorts of subjects.

1. Online retail and Internet shopping – Pros analyze factors like the extent of demand-side substitution between online and physical retail for various product categories. Geographic scope is also assessed.
2. Competitive dynamics and setup – Does value to consumers rise as more sellers join and vice versa? A leading eCommerce antitrust expert witness evaluates whether variables reinforce incumbency advantages and durable entry barriers.
3. Vertical integration and self-preferencing – A leading focus in matters is accusations that vertically integrated ecommerce firms use their control over crucial distribution channels to unfairly favor their own retail or branded products over third-party sellers through tactics like biased search rankings and data policies.
4. Data collection and leveraging – With their ability to harvest extensive consumer data, there are claims some Internet providers improperly leverage these datasets as competitive advantages in adjacent markets like advertising or pricing intelligence. You’d hear the eCommerce antitrust expert witness pros weigh in.
5. Pricing algorithms and collusion risks – The increased use of automated pricing algorithms has raised novel concerns around whether these practices enable tacit collusion or parallel accommodating conduct without express agreement between firms.
6. Distribution restraints and platform access – Policies like restrictions on sellers’ use of third-party distribution channels or selective banning of merchants have invited allegations of unreasonably exclusionary practices and shutting off market access.
7. Mergers, acquisitions, and vertical issues – An eCommerce antitrust expert witness scrutinizes whether merger deals involving ecommerce companies may lessen competition, examining vertical foreclosure incentives, conflicts of interest as distributors, and acquisitions of potential future rivals.

Noting how online shopping represents a growing share of total retail transactions, the practices of leading Intetrnet marketplaces and effects on upstream suppliers, downstream consumer pricing, and multi-channel retail landscapes have become priorities for antitrust regulators and competition scholars – and eCommerce antitrust expert witness practitioners put matters in context.