13 MD 02481

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Yesterday, Judge Forrest dismissed the remaining claims in the ongoing aluminum antitrust litigation, which alleged that aluminum trading firms and warehouses conspired to increase the price of aluminum.  In August, the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Forrest’s dismissal of the claims brought by indirect purchaser plaintiffs who did not actually participate in the market that was supposedly distorted (see our previous coverage here).

Judge Forrest applied the same logic to dismiss the claims for the remaining  first level purchaser plaintiffs:
Continue Reading Judge Forrest Dismisses Remaining Claims in Aluminum Antitrust Litigation

In an opinion yesterday, the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Forrest’s ruling (covered here) dismissing claims by consumer and commercial end-users who alleged that aluminum trading firms and warehouses conspired to increase the price of aluminum.  The Second Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs lacked antitrust standing because they did not participate in the markets where the wrongdoing was alleged to have occurred:
Continue Reading Second Circuit Agrees With Judge Forrest that Aluminum Consumers Lack Antitrust Standing for Alleged Conspiracy Between Warehouses and Traders

In an opinion yesterday, Judge Forrest denied (for the most part) various motions to dismiss the collection of cases alleging an antitrust conspiracy among commodity trading firms and their affiliated warehouse operators relating to the price of aluminum.  She had dismissed an earlier version of the case because it alleged only parallel (not conspiratorial) conduct (see here), but the updated pleadings, she ruled, are now sufficient:
Continue Reading Judge Forrest Allows Aluminum Warehouse Antitrust Case (As Amended) to Proceed

In an 85-page ruling today, Judge Forrest dismissed a group of cases alleging that trading firms and warehouse operators conspired to increase the price of aluminum. The opinion states that the motion consisted of more than 2,600 pages of material, and refers to the fact that the parties delivered a tutorial to Judge Forrest on the workings of the aluminum trading market. The ruling was primarily based on the fact that the allegations amounted to parallel, rational market behavior, not a conspiracy:
Continue Reading Judge Forrest Dismisses Aluminum Antitrust Case; Rules Price Increase “Unintended Consequence” of Parallel Conduct