Cartel Settlements Seldom Surpass Actual Damages

Posted by Social Science Research Network

Cartel Settlements Seldom Surpass Actual Damages– John M Connor ( American Antitrust Institute)

Abstract: Antitrust law authorizes treble damages for victims of antitrust violations, but the vast majority of private cases settle. Consequently, reliable information about the size of settlements relative to injuries has been only anecdotal or speculative. To bring empirical analysis to this issue we assemble a sample of every completed private U.S. cartel case discovered from 1990 to mid 2014 for which we could find the necessary information. For each of these 71 cases we collected neutral scholarly estimates of affected commerce and overcharges. We then compare these to the damages secured in the private cases filed against these cartels.