Covid-19 And New Exemptions Under The Antitrust Laws – A Global Overview

The COVID-19 crisis is the type of economic shock that is bound to increase companies' risk of civil class action antitrust litigation for years, in some cases even decades, to come. Companies across the globe are still defending themselves from the onslaught of civil conspiracy antitrust claims that followed right after the Great Recession. During the Great Recession, companies often had to change business strategies in order to respond to a changed economy, for example, by reducing output so as to respond effectively to the decreased consumer demands. The business reasons for such decisions seemed obvious at the time of the Recession - so obvious that the companies did not always document those. However, not surprisingly, companies that made similar products also reacted to the Great Recession similarly, just as we all humans decide independently to use umbrellas while walking through the rain.