Direct and indirect capacitor purchasers who filed class action
complaints against an alleged worldwide cartel of capacitor
manufacturers have, for the most part, survived a motion to dismiss
in the Northern District of California before Judge James
Donato. The opinion is available here. Capacitors are, as the court
stated, a "ubiquitous" unit in electronic circuits, used
almost universally to store energy on a short-term basis and smooth
the flow of energy through a circuit.
Defendants in the case are foreign manufacturers of capacitors,
many of which are based in Japan, and their U.S.
subsidiaries. The case consists of putative class actions
against capacitor manufacturers on behalf of four named direct
purchasers (DPPs) and five named indirect purchasers (IPPs) of
defendants' electrical components. These plaintiffs
allege that defendants formed a cartel and restrained trade in
violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, artificially raising
prices and
