In Refrigerant Compressors Antitrust Litigation, Eastern District of Michigan Judge Sean F. Cox dismissed several state antitrust indirect purchaser claims in multidistrict litigation alleging a price-fixing conspiracy in the refrigerant compressor market. The court found that indirect purchase plaintiffs must have lived in or suffered an injury in a state to bring indirect purchaser claims under that state’s antitrust law. Federal law prohibits indirect purchasers from recovering damages.
In 2009, the plaintiffs sued alleging that the defendants charged them supra-competitive prices for compressors used in refrigerators and air conditioners and that the plaintiffs thus paid more for the finished products that they would have in a competitive market. Although courts have gone both ways, Judge Cox held that the Due Process Clause requires at least one class member to have been injured in a state in order to invoke that state’s antitrust laws.