Abstract
Competition law is a legal framework regulating competition between undertakings in markets such as prohibiting cartels, prohibiting abuse of market power, and controlling mergers that are likely to restrict competition. Famous international cases include the "Microsoft-case" and the "Lysine cartel". Currently, both Apple and Google are under investigation for violating the competition rules. Competition law analyses have become increasingly advanced and the assessment of evidence often includes complex economic and econometric/statistical analyses. Such analyses are often performed by economists and statisticians as expert witnesses hired by the parties involved. In some jurisdictions, the decisions are adopted by inquisitorial competition authorities, such as in Norway and EU, while in other jurisdictions, such as in the US, decisions are adopted by adversary courts with a laymen jury.
I will give a presentation on how economical and econometrical /statistical analyses should be used and actually are used to support decision making in competition law cases. It will be discussed how imperfections associated with the decision making procedures may distort such analyses from being rationally assessed and given weight according to their real informative value. Are, for instance, the rhetorical skills of an expert likely to trump the informative merits of a statistical analysis? Although the focus will be on competition law analysis, the presentation will be of general value on how economic and statistical analyses are utilized in a litigation context and how various procedural arrangements affect the assessments of such analyses.