Supreme Court’s Comcast Ruling Raises Class Action Standard

The U.S. Supreme Court has reaffirmed that courts must conduct a "rigorous analysis" to determine whether antitrust class action plaintiffs meet the requirements for class certification, even when that requires inquiry into the merits of the underlying claims, and individual issues of damages may preclude class certification.  The recent decision in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend, No. 11-864 (U.S. Mar. 27, 2013), affirms that plaintiffs must prove that damages for the class as certified are in fact capable of proof on a class-wide basis.

Background

Comcast provides cable services to businesses and residences.  Starting in 1998, Comcast began efforts to increase its market share of cable television services in the Philadelphia Designated Market Area ("Philadelphia DMA").  One of these efforts was a "clustering" strategy in which Comcast purchased competitor cable providers in the Philadelphia DMA and then swapped their cable systems outside the region for competitor