District of Oregon federal judge Michael H. Simon denied Retail Imaging Management Group’s emergency motion for a temporary restraining order against Fujifilm North America’s repair services at Rite Aid photo labs, finding no strong evidence that Fujifilm engaged in exclusionary pricing by bundling services, including Rite Aid’s call center service work, at below cost in order to drive Retail Imaging out of the market. Judge Simon found that the court could not conclude that the public interest favored granting the injunction sought by Retail Imaging, adding that doing so may have resulted in Fujifilm breaching its contract with Rite Aid, and cited a lack of evidence for Retail Imaging’s claim that Fujifilm offered Rite Aid a below-cost offer for the call center business that the drugstore chain could not refuse. “[T]he court declines,” Judge Simon wrote, “at this preliminary stage of the litigation, to place the substantial power of the federal courts on the side of one competitor against another as they compete for business in the commercial marketplace.”
Retail Imaging’s lawsuit against Fujifilm alleges that Fujifilm sought to force Retail Imaging out of the market for repairing Fujifilm-brand photo labs by interfering with service contracts and refusing to sell or provide parts and information to service photo labs. Retail Imaging previously was able to purchase parts from Fujifilm to repair and provide maintenance on Fujifilm-brand photo labs installed in major retailers, including Rite Aid and Sam’s Club, but as it grew nationally, Fujifilm began refusing to provide the means for Retail Imaging to repair print heads and other mechanical failures in the printers. Retail Imaging claims it has been forced to steer print head failure projects to Fujifilm, which then billed Retail Imaging for the cost of the equipment and labor, causing it to lose money on its service contracts. Retail Imaging also alleges Fujifilm has obtained agreements from its competitors Rimage and Seiko Epson to refuse to sell replacement parts to Retail Imaging for repairs at Sam’s Club stores.
The motion for a TRO sought to enjoin Fujifilm from commencing work on its contract to service Rite Aid’s 4,400 nationwide photo lab locations, on the ground that Fujifilm unlawfully interfered with a long-standing Rite Aid service agreement and unjustly restricted access to parts and supplies in an attempt to monopolize the market for servicing Fujifilm photo processing minilabs. Retail Imaging claims that Fujifilm’s actions forced it to close portions of its operations in Portland, Ore., and cost it 30% of its gross operating revenue.