False Advertising
With burgeoning litigation over consumer goods promotion, the role of the expert has become increasingly important. Whether from the perspective of plaintiffs or defendants, it is essential to understand and be able empirically to measure consumer response. A number of our experts specialize in studying consumer retail markets, whether for food, cosmetics, personal care products, clothing, household or durable goods. They regularly testify on damages from alleged false labeling, including health, ingredient and “natural” or “organic” claims. They are also engaged in numerous cases involving allegedly deceptive pricing such as inflated “compare at” prices, perpetual sales, and phantom markdowns. Success for either party in these cases often depends on the damage model’s ability accurately to capture economic losses suffered by purchasers—a challenge that has proven problematic in many reported decisions.
Our experts include notable academics with numerous publications on retail markets. A number of these articles involve methods for decomposing prices into individual product attributes, incentives for fraudulent labeling, and estimation of damage in consumer product cases. Benchmark pricing, regression analyses and unjust enrichment each have their appropriate place, and our economists and CPAs are skilled with each method. Adequacy of data is often determinative in studying these markets, and together we are proficient at identifying, obtaining and analyzing such data. Because these cases typically arise as putative class actions, our extensive experience with class certification is an integral component of our services.