Southern District of NY Judge Paul Crotty dismissed a suit filed by bankrupt magazine wholesaler Anderson News against magazine publishers, including Time, Rodale, and American Media. The case arose out of a decision by Anderson to impose a 7% surcharge on magazines to discourage suppliers from shipping excess copies. Rather than accept the surcharge, a number of publishers pulled their business from Anderson, driving it out of business. Anderson alleged a concerted refusal to deal. The court dismissed the claim for failing to sufficiently allege a conspiracy. Eliminating a wholesaler, and thus reducing competition to sell the defendants’ magazines, ran counter to the defendants economic interests and thus inferring a conspiracy from the available evidence was deemed implausible.