Antitrust litigation charging defendants with conspiring to fix prices of text messaging services
In re: Text Messaging Antitrust Litig., 10-8037, concerned defendants' interlocutory appeal challenging the district court's grant of plaintiffs' motion to file a second amended complaint in their class action suit claiming that defendants conspired to fix prices of text messaging services in violation of federal antitrust law. In affirming the ruling, the court held that the district judge was right to rule that the second amended complaint provides a sufficiently plausible case of price fixing to warrant allowing the plaintiffs to proceed to discovery.
As the court wrote: "The second amended complaint alleges a mixture of parallel behaviors, details of industry structure, and industry practices, that facilitate collusion. There is nothing incongruous about such a mixture. If parties agree to fix prices, one expects that as a result they will not compete in price-that's the purpose of price fixing. Parallel behavior of a sort anomalous in a competitive market is thus a symptom of price fixing, though standing alone it is not proof of it; and an industry structure that facilitates collusion constitutes supporting evidence of collusion."
Related Link:
- Read the Seventh Circuit's Full Decision in In re: Text Messaging Antitrust Litig., 10-8037