In In re: Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation, Eastern District of New York Judge Brian M. Cogan refused to dismiss multidistrict litigation alleging that Chinese manufacturers fixed the price of vitamin C, holding that the sales fell within the import and domestic effects exceptions to the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act. As a result, that law does not block the foreign purchasers from pursuing an antitrust claim.
The court held that because the Chinese defendants knew that their conduct would impact U.S. customers, their sales to foreign companies will remain part of the direct-purchaser damages class. Judge Cogan explained that “[t]he sales contracts . . . show [that] the defendants specifically contracted for the delivery of vitamin C to locations within the U.S.,” and while many transactions occurred abroad, “the intent and result of those transactions was the direct importation of vitamin C into the U.S.”
The judge, who is handling the MDL over the allegedly Chinese state-mandated price-fixing plot, stated the transactions fell under the FTAIA’s.