Update September 2010: The court again dismissed the complaint. Although the plaintiff amended the complaint to allege that Kitchenaid sells 80% of stand-up mixers and 90% of the beater attachments for mixers that are sold by the plaintiff, the court held that the complaint failed to identify harm to competition as opposed to harm to the plaintiff.
Update April 2010: The court dismissed the complaint without prejudice for failing to adequately allege a market and injury to competition. The plaintiffs then filed an amended complaint.
In a recent District of Arizona case, Pourfect Products has sued Whirlpool subsidiary KitchenAid alleging that the company violated Section 2 by telling retailers that an attachment fir KitchenAid’s popular mixer that is manufactured by Pourfect would damage the mixing bowl and void the warranty. Pourfect alleges that (1) the tests relied upon by KitchenAid did not involve normal use of the attachment and (2) attachment’s sold by KitchenAid were likely to cause greater harm to the bowl than Pourfect’s attachment. Pourfect alleges that KitchenAid’s false and misleading statements were made with the specific intent of monopolizing the mixer attachment market. This case is likely to pose interesting questions about whether a market exists for attachments to a particular popular product.