Eric R. Emch, PhD

Eric Emch has more than two decades of experience in economic analysis of competition policy issues, including the competitive effects of horizontal and vertical mergers, analysis of single-firm conduct and monopolization, market definition, and collusion. His recent work has focused on merger and monopolization issues in a variety of industries, including wireless telephony, oil field services, and the pharmacy benefit management and publishing industries. He is currently Vice Chair of the Intellectual Property Committee of the American Bar Association.

Dr. Emch joined Bates White from the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), where he served as Staff Economist and Assistant Chief of the Competition Policy Section. As Assistant Section Chief, Dr. Emch led teams of economists in theoretical and empirical analyses of merger, monopolization, and collusion cases primarily in the transportation, energy, and payment cards sectors. This included hiring and collaborating with outside economic experts, strategizing with legal teams on case approach, and incorporating economics into case development. As a staff economist, he conducted theoretical and empirical analyses in support of merger and non-merger investigations in a wide variety of industries.

While on leave from DOJ from 2007 to 2008, he led the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Regional Competition Center in Seoul, Korea, where he designed, organized, and conducted competition policy workshops for staffers of national competition authorities across Asia. Dr. Emch has published in journals such as the Journal of Industrial Economics, Review of Industrial Organization, Review of Network Economics, and Antitrust Law Journal on a number of antitrust topics, including aftermarket effects, market definition in payment cards markets, and non-horizontal merger theories in the GE/Honeywell merger. He has also taught econometrics in Johns Hopkins University’s Masters of Applied Economics Program. He has been named to the Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) list of leading competition economists since 2014 and recognized as a Competition Thought Leader since 2021.

PhD, Economics, University of California, Berkeley

AB, Economics and History, Brown University

SPOTLIGHT

Co-led the team supporting expert Doug Bernheim in Epic Games v. Google, Epic’s antitrust litigation related to Google’s app store practices. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Epic on all counts and all claims. Read more.

• Co-led the team supporting the expert in Epic Games v. Google, Epic’s antitrust litigation related to Google’s app store practices. A jury returned a verdict in favor of Epic on all counts and all claims.
• On behalf of Shaw Communications, analyzed the Canadian wireless market in the context of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s call for comments on its regulation of wholesale mobile wireless roaming. 
• In Determination of Rates and Terms for Making and Distributing Phonorecords, supported expert regarding appropriate mechanical royalty payments under Section 115 of the Copyright Act.
• Prepared economic analysis on behalf of the Canadian Competition Bureau in support of its review of the acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services, Inc., by BCE Inc.
• Led the team supporting the expert on behalf of DOJ in its successful challenge of the proposed $34.6 billion merger of Halliburton and Baker Hughes.
• Led the team providing analysis and expert support for DOJ in analyzing the proposed merger of silicon metal producers FerroAtlantico and Globe Specialty Metals. 
• Led a team assessing the potential competitive effects of AT&T’s proposed $48 billion acquisition of DirecTV during an extended review of the transaction by the DOJ and FCC. 
• On behalf of Constellation Brands, analyzed the competitive effects of Anheuser-Busch InBev and Grupo Modelo’s proposed divestiture of brewery and distribution assets to Constellation in response to DOJ’s concerns about their proposed merger. Coauthored a white paper positing that the proposed divestiture resolved the concerns initially raised and would likely improve competition relative to the status quo.  
• Retained by DOJ's Antitrust Division to produce an expert report and serve as an expert witness for proposed mergers in the publishing and energy services industries. 
• On behalf of Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, provided economic analysis on a wide range of competitive issues that the FTC explored during its eight month investigation of their merger. 
• Drafted new merger control regulations and enforcement guidelines for the Kuwait competition authority and analyzed competitive concerns in the payment card market for the Peruvian government.
• Retained by the OECD to develop and lead a series of workshops in Hungary, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea on pricing-related abuse of dominance, monopolization, and cartels.