For plaintiffs, the cost of losing a case is skyrocketing in antitrust and other complex, document-intensive litigation now that the federal courts are routinely approving hefty bills for e-discovery services in the standard taxation of costs.

Illustrating that trend is the recent decision by the clerk in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to tax costs of more than $576,000 against the losing plaintiffs in In re Aspartame Antitrust Litigation .