Kensington Antitrust Advisors Group

In AVX Corp. et al. v. Cabot Corp., Massachusetts District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns granted Cabot’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the last remaining Sherman Act claim from a five-year old lawsuit filed by AVX.  The suit alleged that Cabot tied the purchase of certain tantalum powder to other type of tantalum powder, committing AVX to purchase both from Cabot.   AVX claimed that in order to defeat Cabot’s summary judgment motion, it had to show only that defendant’s illegal tying caused harm to competition.  The court rejected that position, holding that AVX also needed to present “evidence that Cabot had sufficiently dominant market position to ‘force’ it into a multiyear purchase agreement for a product that it did not want.” Furthermore, the court held that AVX failed to show any quantifiable damages as a result of Cabot’s alleged conduct.