In the Eye of the Beholder: Price Structure as Junk Science in Antitrust Class Certification Proceedings

Abstract

There is currently an active debate in the legal community about the appropriate standard to apply to expert testimony in the class certification phase of an antitrust case. While methods such as the use of "visual inspection" to "prove" the existence of a fixed structure to customer prices would not survive the peer review process of any credible economics journal, this type of analysis is being put forward by economic experts in class certification proceedings and is being accepted by some courts. In this article, we argue that the Daubert standard should be applied to expert testimony in the class certification stage to prevent the use of "visual inspection" and other forms of junk economics.

Keywords: Antitrust, Efficiency

JEL Classification: L4