The starting point for any economic assessment is the structured collection, processing and linking of relevant (transaction) data. This data forms the empirical basis on which economic hypotheses are developed, tested and quantitatively substantiated. In recent proceedings, particularly in antitrust and damages cases, the ability to process large amounts of data in a consistent, verifiable and legally sound manner has become a key quality feature of economic evidence.
Many companies - especially large corporations - are reluctant to initiate in-house data processing. While the amount of data in the numerous (often remotely managed) data silos is not the problem, the internal coordination required to collect this data is considered time-consuming and costly. EE&MC has many years of experience in supporting large companies in collecting extensive data sets, often comprising several million individual transactions. Specifically, as an external service provider, we take on the technical support of in-house data collection and, if desired, also project coordination. This ensures that only data that is ‘important’ for the process is extracted from the data silos. This data regularly includes price, quantity, and in some cases cost, customer and product information that is crucial for reconstructing market behaviour and price formation mechanisms.
Our support focuses on data architecture: the systematic structuring and cleansing of raw data, its allocation to economically relevant variables and, where available, its linking to the underlying accounting documents and booking records. In these projects, we regularly work intensively with internal data experts (up to 15 specialists) and in close coordination with the lawyers leading the proceedings, the internal legal teams and the respective in-house project team for several months. Our external project support ensures that internal resources are used sparingly and effectively with a clear focus: compiling the data required for the legal dispute.
This process begins with a case-specific data request, which is developed individually by EE&MC for the respective proceedings. This specifies precisely which data fields, time periods, aggregation levels and interfaces are required in order to answer the economic question appropriately and with facts. In close consultation with the lawyers conducting the proceedings, we ensure that the data collection and preparation meets both the legal evidence requirements and the economic model requirements. This results in the interlinking of economic analysis and legal arguments, enabling coherent and robust evidence to be presented.
For technical implementation, EE&MC uses standardised data masks and industry-established tools for data management and analysis, including automated check routines to detect outliers, duplicates or inconsistencies. Automated interfaces are used to merge data from different source systems in order to create a consistent and reproducible database. This process ensures that all cleansing steps are documented, traceable and, if necessary, replicable.
EE&MC is increasingly implementing advanced analytical methods and AI-based technologies to efficiently process complex data sets and interpret them economically. These tools enable, for example, the automated recognition of patterns in price developments, the algorithmic assignment of transactions to product groups, or the statistical testing of the robustness and sensitivity of econometric models. The use of such methods allows plausibility and consistency checks to be carried out more quickly, more precisely and with greater empirical density.
The data process does not end with cleansing and structuring: As part of economic modelling, the data sets are linked to economic hypotheses and model structures. Estimation models are designed to reflect the framework conditions of the relevant market and to realistically reproduce the economic relationships between prices, costs (where applicable), capacities, demand and other competitive parameters. Overall, this data-based approach forms the methodological core of EE&MC's assessment. It ensures that every economic analysis is based on a transparently documented, empirically verifiable and legally reproducible database, thus meeting the highest standards of quality, traceability and economic rigour.