plaintiffs alleged class claims that John Deere unfairly limits competition for farming equipment by restricting access to software and tools needed to repair electronic control units on tractors. The court recognized that the plaintiffs alleged a single-brand repair aftermarket and that Deere failed to provide sufficient information regarding product lifecycle costs and repair options. The case is also notable in that it tackled the Illinois Brick doctrine, which dictates that indirect purchasers “who are two or more steps removed [from the alleged violator] in a distribution chain may not sue” on antitrust violations. Id. at 17 (quoting Apple, Inc. v. Pepper, 139 S. Ct. 1514, 1520 (2019)). The court determined that the conspiracy exception to the rule applied because the plaintiffs were the first purchasers into the alleged conspiracy between manufacturers and dealers. Id. at 38. The court also held that, in the alternative, none of the three Illinois Brick factors were satisfied because there was no risk of double recovery, the failure to include the dealerships would not complicate the damages analysis, and requiring the dealerships to be joined to the litigation would not increase enforcement of the antitrust laws. Id. at 38-39. For the past several years, antitrust class actions have been dominated by no-poach cases. The next trend may relate to alleged conspiracies predicated on pricing algorithms. In Gibson, et al. v. MGM Resorts International , 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190442 (D. Nev. Oct. 24, 2023), the plaintiffs filed a class action alleging that several hotel operators on the Las Vegas Strip engaged in an antitrust conspiracy by artificially inflating hotel room prices using pricing software provided by Rainmaker, a subsidiary of Cendyn. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendant MGM was part of this alleged conspiracy. It filed a motion to dismiss arguing that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not contain sufficient allegations to support their claims against MGM. The court granted the motion. It emphasized that antitrust conspiracy cases require some showing, either direct or circumstantial, that each defendant actively participated in the conspiracy. In this case, the court found that the plaintiffs had not provided such evidence regarding MGM. The court opined that the plaintiffs’ complaint did not specifically allege that any of the MGM-operated hotels on the Las Vegas Strip used the Rainmaker software in a way that supported the alleged conspiracy. While there were allegations related to a hotel operated by MGM in Atlantic City, it was not within the Las Vegas Strip market defined by the plaintiffs. The court also determined that the plaintiffs’ references to MGM ’ s use of Cendyn ’ s revenue management software did not necessarily establish that MGM used the Rainmaker software implicated in the alleged conspiracy. Finally, the court noted that the fact that MGM operated the Cosmopolitan Hotel, which used Rainmaker software before MGM took over its operations, was not sufficient to implicate MGM in the alleged conspiracy. Accordingly, the court granted MGM ’ s motion to dismiss. III. Top Antitrust Class Action Settlements In 2023 In 2023, the top ten antitrust class action settlements totaled over $11.74 billion, and nearly three-fold increase over the prior year. By comparison, the top ten settlements for antitrust class actions in 2022 totaled $3.72 billion.
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Duane Morris Antitrust Class Action Review – 2024
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