18 May SEARCH ENGINE ANTITRUST EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTANTS: TESTIMONY & REPORTS
It’s a busy time for search engine antitrust expert witness providers. Top online firms often have tremendous influence over how people access information online, after all. As a result, a number of companies that the best search engine antitrust expert witness consultants track have faced intense antitrust scrutiny from regulators and lawsuits alleging anticompetitive conduct. When these cases go to court, lawyers need providers to help analyze all manner of concerns, e.g.:
- Search engine market parameters – Advisors examine factors like whether online search should include vertical searches, mobile search, paid search ads, and the geographic scope of competition.
- Power, barriers to entry, etc. – Search technology is said by some to exhibit characteristics like economies of scale and network effects that could constitute major barriers to entry. A top search engine antitrust expert witness investigates whether these create a “virtuous cycle” insulating a dominant market position.
- Preferencing and search bias claims – A core area of dispute is whether certain displays and rankings improperly preference a company’s own specialized services like maps, shopping, travel, etc. Pros model impacts on click traffic and revenue shares.
- Vertical integration and duty to deal – You’ll also see a top search engine antitrust expert witness analyze whether providers’ integration into adjacent services like travel, shopping, and local business data violates antitrust laws through refusals to deal with competitors on equal terms.
- Data advantages and leveraging – Given the vast troves of user data they collect, there are claims that top providers here are able to unfairly leverage data across markets in anti-competitive ways. And so the best search engine antitrust expert witness authorities evaluate the impacts and feasibility of data portability remedies.
- Exclusive default requirements – There are allegations that certain restrictive deals to be the default search engine on browsers, devices and voice assistants amount to illegal exclusive dealing. Pros model foreclosure effects.
- Online advertising markets – A significant portion of revenue for certain firms comes from dominance in search advertising markets. You’ll often note how a leading search engine antitrust expert witness is brought in to look at issues like ad auctions, attribution, and whether any conduct forecloses competitors.
With search being a crucial gateway for consumer access to online information, content and commerce, the competitive dynamics in this sector have far-reaching implications. As such, search engine antitrust expert witnesses help courts understand the complicated technical and economic factors at play.
