Ceren Canal Aruoba

Ceren Canal Aruoba has more than fifteen years of experience consulting on complex business litigation matters arising in product liability, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and antitrust disputes. Ms. Canal Aruoba applies sophisticated analytical tools, including surveys and content analysis, to address marketing, advertising, consumer behavior, and data privacy issues. She also has significant experience assessing price impact and damages using a variety of economic tools and methods. Her industry experience is wide-ranging, with a focus on automobiles, education, pharmaceuticals, and technology markets.

Ms. Canal Aruoba is a leader in Cornerstone Research’s consumer fraud and product liability and life sciences work and supports expert development in both practices. She helped to develop and contributes to the firm’s Online Marketing blog, which examines analytical techniques to support or rebut expert testimony on online advertising activities and consumer decision-making.

Ms. Canal Aruoba is vice chair of the Advertising Disputes and Litigation Committee for the Section of Antitrust Law of the American Bar Association (ABA).

Consumer class actions and product liability disputes

Ms. Canal Aruoba has consulted on numerous consumer class actions and product liability disputes involving allegations of false advertising, product misrepresentation, product defect, product labeling, and deceptive retail pricing claims. She also has substantial expertise with consumer decision-making and purchase behavior in online retail environments.

Her expertise includes:

• Designing consumer and professional surveys to assess materiality, reliance, exposure, and heterogeneity
• Supporting experts in Guzman et al. v. Polaris Inc. et al. to perform content analyses of manufacturer marketing and advertising materials, blogs, and social media
• Assessing class certification issues related to higher education tuition and fee refunds arising from COVID-19 measures
• Consulting on alleged dark patterns in user interfaces, and whether such patterns can be reliably identified and distinguished from traditional advertising and marketing activity
• Analyzing class certification issues involving allegations of data breach, unauthorized access to private information, and misuse of personally identifying data for commercial banks and app developers

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare

Ms. Canal Aruoba consults on a range of matters related to pharmaceutical and healthcare markets. Her expertise includes:

• Assessing deceptive marketing and false advertising claims against pharmaceutical companies
• Evaluating the impact of pharmaceutical marketing on prescriber behavior and prescription drug sales
• Assessing pharmaceutical manufacturers’ price reporting practices in the context of average wholesale price (AWP) litigation
• Analyzing the reimbursement policies of payors and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and their impact on pharmacies
• Examining allegations of price fixing among generic drug manufacturers
• Estimating damages in matters involving alleged breach of contract between pharmaceutical drug manufacturers
• Analyzing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process and related issues of therapeutic competition

Antitrust and competition

Ms. Canal Aruoba plays a leading role in Cornerstone Research’s work on matters involving the failing firm defense and merger efficiencies analyses.

In the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) successful challenge in United States v. EnergySolutions Inc. et al., she supported the DOJ expert’s rebuttal of the opposing parties’ failing firm defense.

Ms. Canal Aruoba consulted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on In the Matter of DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel Limited, in which the FTC sought to enjoin the proposed merger of the two largest daily fantasy sports sites.

Ms. Canal Aruoba has addressed similar efficiencies issues in the food and healthcare industries, among others.