Second Circuit Revives Antitrust Class Action Complaint, Perhaps Lowering Perceived Heightened Pleading Standards

The court's revival of this antitrust complaint will likely be an important precedent used by plaintiffs in their efforts to survive future motions to dismiss.

In February 2010, in Starr v. Sony BMG Music Entertainment, et al., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed a district court decision that had dismissed an antitrust challenge to joint-venture-related conduct involving major music companies for failure to state a claim under Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007). Significantly, the court's revival of this antitrust complaint will likely be an important precedent used by plaintiffs in their efforts to survive future motions to dismiss, especially in the context of parallel conduct by joint venture participants. The Supreme Court of the United States' language in Twombly in 2007, together with the Supreme Court's decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009), had been construed by courts and commentators to have