Plaintiffs The Avon Company and LG H&H Company, Ltd. (“Avon,” or Plaintiffs) brought this suit against Fareva Morton Grove, Inc. and Fareva S.A. (collectively “Fareva,” or Defendants) for a breach of their long-term Manufacturing and Supply Agreement (the “MSA”).
Fareva filed a motion to exclude the testimony of Avon’s two experts, Anthony J. Campanelli and Brent K. Bersin on the grounds that their testimony is based on unreliable data.
Accounting Expert Witnesses
Anthony J. Campanelli is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 25 years of experience at Deloitte, one of the world’s largest and most respected accounting and consulting firms.
Brent Kevin Bersin is a Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting with 30 years of experience as an expert witness and consultant on valuation, financial and forensic accounting, and economic damages.
Discussion by the Court
Anthony Campanelli
Campanelli will testify about the calculation of the Net Service Level Payments (“NSLPs”). The NSLPs are calculated based on Schedule D of the MSA, which sets out a formula that, put simply, considers when Fareva fulfilled Avon’s orders and when Avon placed those orders. The formula in Schedule D required a somewhat complex set of calculations, given the delivery and order timing inputs and different multipliers per product. In drafting his expert report and reaching his opinion, Campanelli relied on data provided by Avon regarding forecasts, orders, and delivery data from the relevant time period. Fareva argued that Campanelli’s opinion is not based on reliable data, that his calculations are inconsistent with the Schedule D formulas, and that the opinion improperly introduced contractual interpretations.
Analysis
First, the data relied upon by Campanelli are sufficiently reliable. The discrepancies that Fareva pointed to do not rise to the level of being “speculative or conjectural or based on assumptions that are so unrealistic.” Further, it was permissible for Campanelli to rely on the data provided by Avon. Even if Fareva’s “claims as to factual inaccuracies” in the underlying data and assumptions used by Campanelli were assumed true, Campanelli “at most had a few faulty inputs to an otherwise topical opinion on [the NSLPs]—this is thus not a case in which ‘there is simply too great an analytical gap between the data and the opinion proffered.’”
Second, Fareva argued that Campanelli’s calculations are inconsistent with the MSA because they differ from calculations performed by PwC, Avon’s former expert. The discrepancy is explained by a reasoned choice in how Campanelli calculated the NSLPs, a choice which conformed with Fareva’s position on calculations and resulted in a lower damages claim. This is not a basis for rejecting Campanelli’s opinion.
Third, Campanelli did not rely on improper assumptions or legal interpretations of the MSA in his calculations. While Fareva is correct that an expert may not make legal determinations interpreting a contract, Campanelli’s assumptions regarding the completeness of the data did not rise to the level of an impermissible contract interpretation.
As a result, the Court denied Fareva’s motion to exclude the expert testimony of Campanelli.
Brent Bersin
Bersin will testify about Avon’s lost profits attributable to the lost sales of products that Fareva failed to produce or timely deliver. Bersin’s opinion is based on comparisons between Avon’s performance before and after the breach and on a benchmark comparison of the performance of the broader industry. Bersin relied on a subset of Avon’s North American sales data that captured the products produced by Fareva. Fareva argued that Bersin relied on unreliable and inaccurate data in his calculations, that he failed to disaggregate compounding factors, and his basis of benchmark comparison was unreliable.
Analysis
First, Fareva argued that the sales data relied upon by Bersin included products that Fareva did not produce, that there were other indicia of unreliability, and that Bersin failed to independently verify the data. As with Campanelli, any inconsistencies, which Avon also disputes factually, did not rise to the level of being “speculative or conjectural or based on assumptions that are so unrealistic.” And Bersin permissibly relied on the data provided by Avon in the ordinary course of business.
Second, Fareva argued that Bersin improperly attributed all of Avon’s losses to Fareva, without disaggregating alternative sources of harm. This is insufficient to bar Bersin’s testimony. Bersin’s report acknowledged alternatives, noting that Avon’s oversales were declining and distinguishing between sales data in different product categories.
Third, Fareva argued that Bersin relied on an insufficiently comparable benchmark for its benchmark analysis. Bersin relied upon the Statista data for the “Beauty & Personal Care market” in making his comparison. Fareva contended that using this market, without further analysis of the comparison between the companies within it, was improper, and that the market selected did not compare to Avon because the companies within did not use the same sales model as Avon. The Court disagreed. Bersin acknowledged that he considered the brands within the personal care market to be comparable when deciding to use them. It is reasonable to conceive of Avon as a beauty and personal care brand selling similar products to those in the comparison group. Bersin was not required, as Fareva suggests, to draw a comparison to groups based solely on distribution model that offer entirely different products from Avon.
Therefore, the Court denied Fareva’s motion to exclude the testimony of Bersin.
Held
The Court denied Fareva’s motion to exclude the testimony of Anthony Campanelli and Brent Bersin.
Key Takeaway
Disputes as to the strength of an expert’s credentials, faults in his use of a particular methodology, or lack of textual authority for his opinion, go to the weight, not the admissibility of his testimony.
Case Details:
| Case Caption: | The Avon Company V. Fareva Morton Grove, Inc. |
| Docket Number: | 1:22cv4724 |
| Court Name: | United States District Court, New York Southern |
| Order Date: | July 07, 2026 |
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