Supreme Court May Clarify Conspiracy Standard In Antitrust Class Action

This term the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the consolidated cases of Visa Inc. v. Osborn and Visa Inc. v. Stoumbous and will consider whether automated teller machine (ATM) fee rules adopted by joint ventures amount to a price-fixing conspiracy by Visa and MasterCard, and certain affiliated banks. This matter provides the Court with the chance to further explain the standard plaintiffs must overcome to allege a conspiracy under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The Supreme Court last addressed the subject in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 554 (2007), where the Court held that in order for a plaintiff to plead an antitrust conspiracy sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss, she must put forth factual allegations that plausibly allege the existence of an anticompetitive agreement that rise above the level of parallel conduct.