Lex Machina Releases 2023 Antitrust Litigation Report
Antitrust cases have declined largely across the board over the last four years; food production companies dominated as the most active defendants; courts enforced a high standard at the pleadings stage
Menlo Park, CA — April 20, 2023 —Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today releases its annual Antitrust Litigation Report. The report examines trends in antitrust litigation in federal district courts and appellate courts. Focusing on the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, it surveys emerging trends in case filings, venues, judges, law firms, parties, timing metrics, case resolutions, findings, and damages. The report often focuses on different sets of data, e.g., filtering cases in order to provide analytics on DOJ/FTC enforcement contested cases, MDL Master cases, and federal appellate cases.
“Our report revealed several exciting insights about the changing landscape of antitrust litigation,” said Ron Porter, Lex Machina’s antitrust legal data expert and editor of the report. “Our data and analytics not only showed us that antitrust cases have continued to decline year-over-year for the past four years, our filters revealed that this case filing trend was mirrored in several key subsets of cases. The analytics also highlighted that unlike previous years, food production companies featured prominently as the most active defendants. Moreover, our case resolution and findings analytics indicated that courts continued to expect plaintiffs and defendants to meet a high bar at the pleadings stage.”
Findings from the report include:
- In 2022, 371 antitrust cases were filed, the lowest number of cases filed in any year over the past decade.
- The highest number of antitrust cases was filed in the Northern District of California, while Judge Howell from the District Court for the District of Columbia was the most active judge for antitrust cases.
- A large bulk of the most active plaintiffs were pharmaceutical companies, while food production companies dominated the most active defendants.
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan represented plaintiffs in the highest number of antitrust cases filed in the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represented defendants in the highest number of antitrust cases filed in the five-year period from 2018 to 2022.
- For antitrust cases that were appealed to a federal appellate court and terminated from 2018 to 2022 with a decision on the merits of the appeal, 34% were ultimately reversed.
Lex Machina’s reports and software enable practitioners to devise data-driven litigation strategies. The metrics in this report can help readers decide who to pursue as clients, whether to file a particular motion, or when to settle (and for how much). This research supplements traditional legal research and anecdotal data for a competitive edge in court.
Register here for a copy of the report.
About Lex Machina
Lex Machina fundamentally changes how companies and law firms compete in the business and practice of law. The company provides strategic insights on judges, lawyers, law firms, parties, and other critical information across 20 federal practice areas and a rapidly growing number of state courts. Lex Machina allows law firms and companies to predict the behaviors and outcomes that different legal strategies will produce, enabling them to win cases and close business.
Lex Machina was named one of “Legal Tech’s Most Promising Solution Providers” (CIO Review Awards 2022), “Greater Bay Area Top Workplaces 2022” (The San Francisco Chronicle Top Workplaces in the Bay Area 2022), “Legal Tech Company of the Year 2021″ (CIO Review, 2021), “2021 Legal Technology Trailblazer” (National Law Journal Trailblazer Awards, 2021), Winner of the “Media Excellence” Award for Analytics/Big Data (13th Annual Media Excellence Award, 2021). Based in Silicon Valley, Lex Machina is part of LexisNexis, a leading global provider of legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics. For more information, please visit www.lexmachina.com.