CEG

CEG may be smaller than many of the economic consultancies we list, but it nonetheless advises on complex matters across its offices in London, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Sydney, San Francisco, Milan, Zug and Rotterdam. 

Economists Nils von Hinten-Reed and Fabian Rinnen were retained by German food retailer Metro in the sale of its Real hypermarket chain to real estate investor Redos. The team also advised a group of mobile virtual network operators on the TPG/Vodafone mobile merger in Australia. Although the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission opposed the tie-up in May 2019 after an in-depth review, an Australian court in February 2020 sided with the merging parties and allowed the €9.3 billion tie-up to proceed. 

In non-merger work, CEG advised German shoe retailer Deichmann Group in its lawsuit against the Association of German Banks, which it accused of unlawfully fixing merchant fees for card use. The consultancy provided an expert report on damages suffered as a result of the banking association’s alleged anticompetitive conduct. The case was pending before a lower regional court of Berlin at the time of writing. 

Waste management companies Suez, Veolia and Wolseley hired the firm to provide economic analysis on damages suffered for their follow-on claims arising from the Trucks cartel. The plaintiffs have accused multiple truck manufacturers, including DAF, Renault, Volvo, MAN, Iveco and Daimler, of participating in a cartel to fix the prices of trucks and passing on the cost of environmental compliance to consumers. In October 2020, a UK appellate court denied a request by the truck manufacturers to contest certain facts in the European Commission’s Trucks cartel settlement decision during follow-on litigation.