Third Circuit Remands Class Certification Ruling In Blood Reagents Price-Fixing Case

On Wednesday, April 8, 2015, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court's order certifying a class of direct purchasers of blood reagents in a price-fixing suit against Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics Inc.  In re Blood Reagents, case number 12-4067.  Plaintiffs allege that Ortho-Clinical Diagnostic Inc. (Ortho) and a producer of blood reagents, violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by conspiring with the only other U.S. producer of reagents, Immucor Inc., to raise prices of blood reagents on numerous occasions throughout the 2000s.  Immucor settled with plaintiffs in 2012.  In September 2011, the plaintiffs moved to certify a class of direct purchasers, and the district court held a hearing in July 2012.  To support their arguments for class certification, the plaintiffs relied on expert testimony to create their damages model and antitrust impact analysis.  Although Ortho challenged the reliability of the expert testimony, the district court certified the