Antitrust and Competition

Economics of Privacy and Data Breaches

NERA has extensive experience in economic analysis of regulatory and legal issues related to privacy and data collection practices.  Our firm has a global reach, with our experts assisting clients in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific.  Our experts are thought leaders on the topics of privacy and the value of personally identifiable information (PII), both in the academic literature and in the context of privacy policies such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA), and Section 5 challenges under the FTC Act.

We employ cutting edge econometric, economic modeling, and survey methods to help our clients navigate through expert economic analysis of privacy and data security. We can assist in the development of economic context surrounding data privacy policies; analysis of consumer behavior in relation to privacy policies; reviewing economic analysis advanced by others; and developing and implementing methods to apply legal frameworks to the calculation of damages, fines, restitution, disgorgement, and unjust gains.

Our experience includes FTC investigations, Article 82 / 83 GDPR damages and fines cases, consumer class actions, individual civil lawsuits, and securities class actions.  The breadth of consultants and academic affiliates’ experience allows us to assist clients through all stages of litigation and regulatory investigations, including data collection and analysis for discovery, class certification, preparing expert reports to evaluate consumer harm from data breaches or violations of privacy policies, and the analysis of risk profiles associated with vulnerable data.