On September 20, 2019, the Supreme Court released its
long-awaited decision in Pioneer Corp v
Godfrey. Godfrey is the Supreme
Court’s latest decision involving price-fixing class actions, and expands
on and clarifies the basic approach to these cases that the Court
laid out six years ago in Pro-Sys Consultants Limited v Microsoft
Corporation.
Background and Issues
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants conspired to fix the
price of optical disc drives and related products. They commenced
an action for damages arising from the alleged conspiracy and moved
to certify the action as a class proceeding.
The case raised four discrete issues.
First, the plaintiffs sought to include as part of the class not
only direct purchasers of the drives, but also indirect purchasers
(who purchased the drives from the direct purchasers) and so-called
umbrella purchasers (who purchased drives made by companies who
were not alleged to have participated in the conspiracy on
