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Kemet has reached a $62 million settlement of antitrust litigation in California federal court accusing several electronics parts manufacturers of agreeing to fix the price of capacitors. Groups of direct and indirect purchasers have accused more than a dozen overseas manufacturers including Panasonic Corp. and Sanyo of conspiring to fix prices for aluminum, tantalum and film capacitors over the last decade. U.S. District Judge James Donato certified a class of direct buyers in November 2018.

The lawsuit was filed in July 2014. In April 2018, indirect purchasers reached a $20 million deal with several manufacturers and later that year they reached a $21.5 million agreement with Nichicon Corp.

This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact Oregon class actions.

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A majority of the the U.S. Supreme Court held recently that consumers that purchase Apps from Apple’s App store are direct purchasers able to pursue a proposed antitrust class action under federal law. The majority rejected Apple Inc.’s contention that the consumers are “indirect purchasers” barred from pursuing federal antitrust damages under the high court’s 1977 ruling in Illinois Brick. Instead, the majority found the App Store buyers are direct purchasers from Apple, sidestepping calls from 31 states to overturn the landmark Illinois Brick ruling, which has generally limited federal antitrust claims under the Sherman and Clayton acts to “direct” purchasers of the price-fixed product or service, not “indirect” buyers further down the chain.

“It is undisputed that the iPhone owners bought the apps directly from Apple. Therefore, under Illinois Brick, the iPhone owners were direct purchasers who may sue Apple for alleged monopolization,” Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said for the 5-4 majority, joined by the court’s liberal members.

The technology giant has been defending the case since 2011, when consumers first alleged that it monopolizes the market by forcing developers to sell only on its platform, while it collects a 30% commission. A district court granted Apple’s motion to dismiss the case in 2013 under Illinois Brick, but the Ninth Circuit revived it in 2017. The Ninth Circuit held that because Apple acts as a distributor of the apps and customers purchase apps directly from Apple, Illinois Brick did not apply.

This blog is intended to provide information to the general public and to practitioners about developments that may impact Oregon class actions.

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Samsung and Toshiba agreed to pay $25 million to resolve a class action alleging that they participated in an industry-wide conspiracy to fix optical disk drive prices. The plaintiffs settling the case were indirect purchasers of the drives; ie. consumers. If approved, the proposed deal would bring the total amount of consumer settlements in the case to $205 million. Continue reading “Samsung and Toshiba Settle Optical Disc Drive Price Fixing Claims for $25 Million”

Several large U.S. pork companies, including Hormel Foods Corp., Smithfield Foods, Inc., and Tyson Foods Inc., were hit with an antitrust lawsuit this week alleging that they conspire to inflate pork prices in an effort to boost profit at consumers’ expense. The complaint alleges the collusion has been going on since 2009. Continue reading “Antitrust Class Action Filed Against Pork Processors”