18 May MOBILE DEVICE ANTITRUST EXPERT WITNESS: TESTIMONY, CONSULTING AND REPORTS
Per top mobile device antitrust expert witness consulting companies, solutions like smartphones and tablets have become central to modern digital life and commerce. That being said, the competitive dynamics surrounding mobile operating systems, hardware, and related services have faced intensifying legal scrutiny. Enter mobile device antitrust expert witness pros, whose work comes in handy when these issues end up in litigation on areas such as the below.
- Understanding product categories – A foundational issue for an advisor is how to properly define the relevant antitrust product and geographic markets, such as whether mobile operating systems, devices, and integrated services constitute separate markets or an overarching ecosystem market.
- Looking at how app stores function – Top mobile device antitrust expert witness providers model impacts on developers, consumer choice and competition.
- Wireless carrier partnerships and exclusivity – Consumer electronics makers frequently partner with major wireless carriers, sometimes with contractual requirements around exclusivity or pre-installation of certain apps/services. Top mobile device antitrust expert witness consultants assess alleged foreclosure effects.
- Interoperability barriers and lock-in – There are claims that inadequate interoperability and inability to seamlessly transfer data between different mobile ecosystems amplifies consumer lock-in and raises switching costs. Advisors attempt to quantify these effects.
- Technical bundling and tying – Across both hardware and software offerings, tying claims frequently arise around pre-installation of default apps/services that cannot be fully removed. And so the best mobile device antitrust expert witness firms evaluate the potential consumer harm and foreclosure impacts.
- Mobile browser and search requirements – Antitrust scrutiny has focused on requirements that device makers pre-install certain browsers and set default search engines, potentially inhibiting consumer choice. Pros analyze effects on user behavior.
- Patent litigation and FRAND commitments – In this patent-intensive sector, a mobile device antitrust expert witness considers whether certain tactics around standard-essential patent litigation, excessive royalty demands, or potential patent weaponization create anticompetitive tax on rivals.
As such solutions sit at the nexus of hardware, software, and integrated services like app stores and mobile advertising, the competitive effects in these interlocking markets have major implications for mobile device antitrust expert witness authorities as they think about influences on innovation and consumer welfare.
