2020 Antitrust Annual Report: Class Action Filings in Federal Court

Abstract

The 2020 Private Antitrust Enforcement Report provides various empirical analyses of antitrust class actions litigated in federal court from 2009 through 2020. It addresses various topics, including the number of antitrust class action complaints filed each year, the amount of time on average to reach a settlement, the mean and median recoveries, the attorneys' fees and costs awarded, the total settlement amounts in each year and overall, the law firms that represented plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust class action settlements, and the cumulative totals for claims administrators involved in the settlement process. The Report also distinguishing private antitrust enforcement by particular industries, by type of claim—conspiracy claims (under Section 1 of the Sherman Act) as opposed to claims based on unilateral conduct (Section 2 of the Sherman Act)—and by type of plaintiff—whether claims were brought on behalf of direct or indirect purchasers. The plan is to provide similar information on an annual basis. We hope that these reports will prove of interest to the academy and the public and private sectors, and that the data they analyze will offer a firmer empirical basis than would otherwise be possible for private decisions and for public policy discussions, as well as for actions related to enforcement of the antitrust laws through private class actions.

Keywords: Antitrust, Private Enforcement, Civil Procedure, Class Actions, Federal Courts, Economics, Empirical