Celeste C. Saravia

Celeste Saravia coheads Cornerstone Research’s antitrust and competition practice. Dr. Saravia provides economic and statistical consulting, analysis, and expert testimony in complex business litigation. She addresses class certification, liability, and damages issues in antitrust litigation matters alleging collusion, vertical restraints, and other allegedly anticompetitive behavior, as well as assessing the competitive effects of mergers.

Dr. Saravia works on matters in many industries, including life sciences (pharmaceuticals and medical devices), finance, information technology, energy, telecommunications, and media. Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) has recognized her multiple times as a leader among competition economists, and has recommended her among commercial litigation practitioners. Dr. Saravia teaches economics courses at the University of California, Berkeley.

Antitrust and competition

Dr. Saravia has served as an expert in more than a dozen cases dealing with antitrust issues, including no-poach agreements, non-compete agreements, price fixing, monopolization, bundling, exclusive dealing, predatory pricing, price discrimination, and product hopping.

She testified at trial in Tevra Brands LLC v. Bayer Healthcare LLC on issues related to antitrust market definition, market power, foreclosure, and competitive effects. Other trials in which Dr. Saravia has provided testimony include In re HIV Antitrust Litigation, which focused on an allegedly anticompetitive reverse payment in a pharmaceutical patent settlement; and J & M Distributing Inc. v. Hearth & Home Technologies Inc. et al., an alleged monopolization case. In all these trials, the jury’s opinion was consistent with Dr. Saravia’s testimony.

Global Competition Review named Dr. Saravia a finalist for Economist of the Year for her work on In re HIV Antitrust Litigation, which was also shortlisted for Litigation of the Year – Non-Cartel Defence.

Dr. Saravia’s other representative expert work includes Inline Packaging LLC v. Graphic Packaging International Inc. and Fresenius Kabi USA LLC v. Par Sterile Products LLC et al.

Dr. Saravia has supported government agencies and parties in all phases of merger review. She has analyzed competitive effects in prominent proposed mergers, such as Sysco/US Foods and Thoratec/Heartware. The Department of Justice (DOJ) retained Dr. Saravia to assess the competitive effects of the proposed merger between China International Marine Containers Group and Maersk Container Industry.

As a consultant, Dr. Saravia leads teams working on high-profile matters, including FTC v. Qualcomm, In re Flash Memory Antitrust Litigation, American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. v. Visa USA Inc. et al., and Thales Avionics Inc. v. Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation.

Energy and commodities

Dr. Saravia has developed analytical and statistical models to examine the competitiveness of deregulated electricity markets and modeled the competitive effects of a proposed merger of two electricity firms. In a matter related to an alleged monopsony by the largest purchaser of a natural resource, she provided a preliminary injunction analysis and addressed class certification, liability, and damages issues.

Intellectual property

Dr. Saravia has addressed general damages and intellectual property issues in a variety of matters. In Verizon Services Corp. et al. v. Cox Fibernet Virginia Inc. et al., she analyzed reasonable royalty rates, lost profits, and price erosion due to patent infringement. She also addressed reasonable royalty rates due to patent infringement in Brandeis University and GFA Brands Inc. v. Keebler Co. et al. Dr. Saravia analyzed class certification, liability, and damages related to a breach of contract dispute in the hospitality industry.

Thought leadership

Dr. Saravia speaks and publishes frequently on competition issues. She won a Concurrences Antitrust Writing Award for her coauthored article, “Analyzing Incentives and Liability in ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Conspiracies.” She has published research in Global Competition Review, including “Horizontal Merger Guidelines and Market Definition in Monopolization Cases” and “Standards for Assessing Bundled Discounts.”

Dr. Saravia has served as a lecturer in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Cornerstone Research, she worked at the University of California Energy Institute.