In Solyndra LLC v. Suntech Power Holdings Co. et al., bankrupt solar power company Solyndra filed an antitrust action in a Northern District of California alleging that Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. and two other Chinese companies conspired to drive American manufacturers from the market.
Solyndra, which is famous for failing after having received a significant loan guarantee from the U.S. government, lleges that the defendants recognized “that they could not keep pace with the innovation presented by Solyndra’s technology,” and thus they conspired “with key suppliers and lenders to dump product at predatory levels [in the United States] and to drive Solyndra and other American solar manufacturers out of business.”
The suit followed a U.S. Department of Commerce announcement that Chinese solar panel makers were benefitted from unfair government subsidies and that imports of the panels from China were being illegally dumped into the United States.
Suntech America’s managing director stated the company’s intent to “defend against these allegations vigorously.”