Update May 2011: The court dismissed claims filed by Blockbuster customers, alleging that the Walmart/Netflix deal led directly to Blockbuster raising its prices. The court held that there was insufficient evidence of a direct link between Update July 2010: The court has denied Walmart’s and Netflix’s motion to dismiss. Although retaining doubt about the plaintiffs’ […]
Category Archives: Cartel Activity
Court Allows Plaintiffs To Amend Complaint in On-Line DVD Rental Antitrust Suit
May 8, 2011 – 6:23 pm
LendingTree Denied Motion to Dismiss Antitrust Suit
April 15, 2011 – 1:34 pm
District of New Jersey Judge Susan D. Wigenton denied LendingTree’s motion to dismiss BanxCorp’s antitrust claims against it, finding that BanxCorp’s complaint contained sufficiently detailed factual allegations regarding a 2007 partnership between LendingTree and Bankrate Inc. BanxCorp, a bank-rate website company, alleged that LendingTree conspired with Bankrate to fix prices and control the online bank-rate […]
April 15, 2011 – 1:32 pm
The Fifth Circuit panel of Judges E. Grady Jolly, Jacques L. Wiener Jr., and Carl E. Stewart upheld a dismissal of two class action cases alleging that oil companies owned by foreign governments in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (“OPEC”) violated U.S. antitrust law. The classes, U.S. gasoline retailers and oil purchasers, claimed that […]
AmEx Denied Summary Judgment in Price Fixing Class Action
April 15, 2011 – 1:08 pm
Southern District of New York Judge William H. Pauley III denied American Express Co.’s motion for summary judgment on antitrust class action claims. Class members are users of Visa and MasterCard credit cards charged foreign transaction fees for purchases made in a foreign currency. In its claim filed in 2004, the class alleged that AmEx […]
Challenges to South Carolina MLS’s to Move Forward
March 27, 2011 – 3:41 pm
District of South Carolina Judge Sol Blatt Jr. let stand antitrust claims against two real estate multi-listing services. The defendants argued that the services and their members constituted a single entity incapable of conspiring under the antitrust laws. Rejecting that defense, the court held that the defendants were capable to conspiring to restrain competition.
US Supreme Court Declines to Review Dismissal of Leegin Price Fixing Case
February 19, 2011 – 12:39 pm
Update February 2011: The U.S. Supreme Court denied the plaintiff’s petition for certioari without comment. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of an amended complaint that sought to cast what were originally vertical price fixing allegations has horizontal price fixing. The case brought by a discount retailer originally alleged that Leegin imposed vertical minimum resell […]
Aspartame Conspiracy Suite Dismissed
January 31, 2011 – 9:05 am
The Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a conspiracy case claiming that 10 defendants, including Japanese firm Ajinomoto Co. Inc., which distributed aspartame in the United States; Monsanto, which owned rights to aspartame product NutraSweet; and Delaware-based NutraSweet Co. conspired to increase the price of the sweetener. The court dismissed the case as outside the statute of limitations, because the […]
EU Antitrust Regulators Raid Truck Manufacturers in Cartel Investigation
January 28, 2011 – 1:15 pm
Antitrust regulators raided the offices of Daimler AG, Volvo AB, and other truck manufacturers as they began to investigate cartel activity. The EC announced that it had reason to believe that truck manufacturers may have operated a cartel or abused their dominant market positions to restrict competition. All five truck manufactures involved in the probe […]
EC Opens Cement Investigation
January 26, 2011 – 5:16 pm
The European Commission is investigating cement manufacturers suspected of engaging in anticompetitive business practices. The Commission is concerned about possible import/export restrictions, market sharing, and price coordination in the markets for cement and related products.
European Court of Justice Upholds Annul Cartel Fine
January 26, 2011 – 5:06 pm
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) dismissed the appeal brought by Repsol, General Quimica SA, and Repsol Quimica SA challenging a $4.9 million fine levied by the Commission. The ECJ upheld the fine, but reversed a lower court decision to hold the companies jointly and severally liable. In 2005, the EC fined the companies for […]