ANALYSIS: Antitrust Cases Are on an Upswing Over 2019

Practitioners concerned that the Covid-19 crisis may have impacted antitrust litigation can rest easy: More federal antitrust cases were filed during the first half of 2020 than in the same period in 2019.

While the reason for the uptick isn’t entirely clear, market disruptions due to recession and the fruition of several big enforcement investigations could well extend the upswing.

During 2019, filings were roughly stable during the first and second quarters of the year at 130 and 126, respectively. This year, new cases filed increased in Q1 by about 18% over the same quarter in 2019 to 154, ...