Supreme Court Of Canada Rules Indirect Purchasers Can Sue For Price-Fixing

On October 31, 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada released its decisions in three related appeals, two from the British Columbia Court of Appeal and one from the Quebec Court of Appeal, all dealing with the certification of price-fixing claims as class actions:

• Sun-Rype Products Ltd. v Archer Daniels Midland Company¹ (Sun-Rype)
• Pro-Sys Consultants Ltd. v Microsoft Corporation² (Microsoft)
• Infineon Technologies AG v Options Consommateurs³ (Infineon)

Although these appeals addressed a number of important issues relating to price-fixing class actions and the certification of class proceedings in general, the key issue before the court in all three appeals related to the viability of claims by "indirect purchasers": consumers and others who did not purchase products directly from a defendant, and instead purchased such products indirectly, often as a component or ingredient of a finished product, from a non-defendant further down the product distribution