Vermont District Court Judge Christina Reiss refused to dismiss attempted monopolization claims filed by dairy farmers against the Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. and Dean Foods Co. Although questions remained about the product market and whether the statute of limitations was met, the court found the allegations sufficient to move forward. The court did dismiss [...]
Category Archives: Standard for Alleging Conspiracy
Class Action Alleges Price Fixing in the Sale of Optical Disc Drives
August 31, 2010 – 3:17 pm
Classes of direct and indirect purchasers have filed suit in the Northern District of California alleging that optical disc drives. The complaint alleges that the defendants agreed to charge higher prices and rig electronic auctions to ensure that the certain price floors were maintained.
Drug Wholesalers Claim Dismissed for Lack of Evidence of Market Power or Conspiracy
August 31, 2010 – 12:10 pm
Update August 2010: The Second Circuit has affirmed this decision.
In RxUSA Wholesale Inc. v. Alcon Laboratories Inc. et al., Eastern District of New York Judge Denis R. Hurley has dismissed a $2.3 billion antitrust lawsuit accusing 16 pharmaceutical manufacturers and a group of drug distributors of conspiring to keep RxUSA Wholesale Inc., a secondary distributor, [...]
Blood Reagent Price-Fixing MDL Moves Forward
August 27, 2010 – 4:03 pm
E.D. PA Judge Jan Dubois denied defendant Immucor Inc. & Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc. motion to dismiss on the ground that the plaintiffs had failed to sufficiently allege an agreement. The judge cited the close timing of the defenants’ price increases for blood reagent; their cancellations of contracts with group purchasers; and [...]
Insurance Conspiracy Case Partially Dismissed
August 19, 2010 – 2:20 pm
The Third Circuit dismissed a major portion of the Insurance Brokers’ Antitrust Litigationon the ground that the complaint fails to adequately allege an a horizontal agreement among insurers. Although the plaintiffs alleged agreements between particular insurers and brokers, the insurers had sufficient incentive to enter those vertical agreements even if the insurers had not agreed [...]
Magazine Distribution Boycott Case Dismissed
August 17, 2010 – 10:42 am
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 [...]
Nurses’ Salary Class Action to Move Forward
August 16, 2010 – 2:49 pm
Northern District of NY Judge Thomas McAvoy denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, holding that the allegationsof information exchanges and surpressed wages was sufficient to permit a jury to find both collusive activity and actual anticompetitive effects. The court also denied the one unionized hospital’s motion to dismiss on non-statutory labor [...]
Drug Retailers Allege Conspiracy to Block Generic Provigil
August 11, 2010 – 3:32 pm
Update Spring 2010: E.D. PA Judge Mitchell Goldberg denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss a number of consolidated cases. The court held that the complaint plausibly alleges that the patent settlements extended beyond the permissible scope of the defendant’s patent rights.
In Walgreens Co. et al. v. Cephalon Inc. et al., Walgreens Co., Safeway Inc., The [...]
Court Dismiss Complaint in LCD Panel Price Fixing Case
July 26, 2010 – 3:59 pm
Northern District of California Judge Susan Illston dismissed AT&T’s claims against various LCD display manufacturers, rejecting the plaintiff’s theory that evidence sufficient to establish a conspiracy to fix prices on one type of LCD display was sufficient to permit an inference of price fixing with respect to other types of displays. The court dismissed the [...]
Honeywell Alarm Price Fixing Case Dismissed
May 27, 2010 – 3:33 pm
Judge Robert Patterson, Southern District of New York, dismissed without prejudice Integrated Systems complaint alleging that Honeywell had orchestrated a price-fixing conspiracy among retailers and terminated the plaintiff’s dealership when it refused to go along. The court held that allegations of complaints by competing dealers were insufficient to properly allege a conspiracy and that the [...]