Unpacking Antitrust: Help! My Company Is A Defendant In An Antitrust Class Action

When allegations of industry-wide price fixing or other cartel conduct come to light, plaintiffs' lawyers almost always respond with class-action lawsuits, naming all the relevant competitors as co-defendants. Often the defendants comprise all or most sellers of the at-issue product across an entire industry, plus parents and subsidiaries, both domestic and foreign, even if there are no known factual allegations against each named defendant at the time a lawsuit is filed.

The lawsuits typically get filed in federal courts around the country and by various plaintiff groups: direct purchasers, indirect purchasers and individual "opt out" purchasers. The result is a morass of relatively unique procedural (not to mention substantive) issues: joint defense groups; international service; multi-district-litigation consolidation; and a slew of group and individual motions to dismiss, among other things.