Summary
Scott Thompson specializes in antitrust analysis of mergers and alleged anticompetitive conduct. He has significant methodological expertise and extensive experience using economic models and empirical techniques to assess and quantify predicted effects of proposed mergers, agreements, and single-firm conduct.
Dr. Thompson has an extensive background providing antitrust analysis in support of expert testimony. Prior to joining Bates White, he served at the US Department of Justice for more than 10 years as a staff economist and as Assistant Chief of the Economic Regulatory Section of the Antitrust Division. In that role, Dr. Thompson conducted or supervised the agency′s economic analysis in numerous investigations and cases involving a wide variety of industries including financial markets, consumer products, and healthcare.
Before joining the Antitrust Division, Dr. Thompson served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, specializing in econometrics.
Education
PhD, Economics, University of Wisconsin
MS, Economics, University of Wisconsin
AB, International Relations, Stanford University
SPOTLIGHT
Final Offer Arbitration as a Merger Remedy—This presentation offers an economic perspective of FOA as a remedy in the AT&T / Time Warner merger case.
Selected Work
Selected Experience
Mergers
- In Centene Corporation’s $17 billion acquisition of WellCare Health Plans, supported the expert’s work for the merging parties by providing economic analysis on issues related to the markets for managed Medicaid and Medicare Advantage plans that arose during agency investigations.
- On behalf of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., assisted with reviews by antitrust authorities in multiple jurisdictions of its offer to acquire Qiagen N.V.
- Supported expert work on behalf of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to evaluate the effectiveness of ATT’s proposed conduct remedy in its merger with Time Warner. Evaluation included a qualitative review of the ability of the remedy to constrain the merged firm’s increased market power.
- On behalf of health insurer Anthem, authored an expert report in a Delaware Chancery Court case arising from Anthem’s proposed $54 billion merger with Cigna.
- Worked on behalf of DuPont to analyze the competitive effects of its proposed merger with Dow Chemical Company across a wide range of markets.
- Retained as testifying expert on a merger of international agricultural product firms.
- Supported expert on behalf of DOJ in the matter U.S. v. AB Electrolux, Electrolux North America, Inc., and General Electric Company.
- On behalf of construction material manufacturers Holcim Ltd. and Lafarge SA, provided economic analysis of the likely competitive effects of the proposed $25 billion merger in markets for cement, ready-mix concrete and construction aggregates in North America, analyzed various divestiture scenarios, and provided ongoing support to attorneys for the parties throughout the regulatory approval process.
- Worked on behalf of Dr. Oetker to analyze the competitive effects of its proposed acquisition of McCain Foods’ North American frozen pizza business.
- Conducted detailed economic analysis on behalf of Eli Lilly in connection with its $5.4 billion acquisition of Novartis Animal Health.
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Retained by the FTC to testify on statistical issues in the matter Federal Trade Commission v. St. Luke’s Health System, Ltd.
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Provided economic consulting support to Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines in connection with their proposed merger under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
- Supervised the analysis presented to the FTC on the antitrust implications of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company′s (A&P) proposed acquisition of Pathmark Stores, Inc. on behalf of A&P.
Monopolization and cartels
- On behalf of the FTC, supported Professor Carl Shapiro’s reports in litigation against Qualcomm in Federal Trade Commission v. Qualcomm Inc.
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Retained to testify on economic damages on behalf of American Specialty Health, Inc. in its exclusive dealing suit against Healthways, Inc.
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Provided liability and damages analysis for DuPont in its litigation against Monsanto regarding alleged antitrust and intellectual property violations.
- In two matters, American Airlines v. Sabre and American Airlines v. Travelport, led the team providing support for expert testimony on damages on behalf of American Airlines.
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On behalf of DuPont, provided economic analysis and expert testimony in a monopolization case related to sales of para-aramid fiber (e.g., Kevlar) in the United States. DuPont was granted summary judgment in its favor and Kolon Industries’ antitrust claims were dismissed with prejudice.
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Supported multiple testifying experts retained by counsel for Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in litigation against Intel, Inc., alleging illegal conduct to maintain a monopoly.
Consumer protection
- Supported expert testimony of Dr. Joseph Farrell on behalf of LendingClub in Federal Trade Commission v. LendingClub Corporation regarding the estimation of economic consumer harm (if any) stemming from LendingClub’s loan disclosures.
- Assisted counsel for a class of dealers seeking damages from Volkswagen due to deceptive practices related to allegedly "clean diesel" engines installed in certain vehicles.
- On behalf of consumer claimants, assisted class counsel in pursuing claims against Fiat Chrysler America and Bosch arising from deceptive practices related to “EcoDiesel” engines installed in some Dodge Ram and Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles. The class action settled for $307.5 million.
- Retained to assist in responding to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into AdvoCare’s multilevel marketing (MLM) model of product distribution.
- Supported the expert testimony of Dr. Joseph Farrell working on behalf of Herbalife International of America (Herbalife) related to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation into the company’s multilevel marketing model in which products are sold through a member network.
Regulatory
- On behalf of Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc., submitted a declaration to the Postal Regulatory Commission addressing analysis submitted by experts in a proceeding related to proposed changes in accounting methodology for Postal Service highway transportation costs.
- On behalf of Amazon Fulfillment Services, Inc., submitted a declaration to the Postal Regulatory Commission addressing conceptual and statistical issues raised by a proposal to change US Postal Service accounting methods in order to account for variable costs allegedly “hidden” in costs not currently attributed to individual products.
- Provided support for Dr. Joseph Farrell, who submitted two declarations on behalf of Comcast in an FCC proceeding on business data services.