TFT-LCD Flat Panel Antitrust Litigation
(N.D. Cal.) In this antitrust litigation, Plaintiffs alleged a long-running conspiracy among defendants and co-conspirators by forming an international cartel to fix, raise and maintain prices for LCD panels sold indirectly to plaintiffs and other indirect purchasers (the end-user consumers) in the United States. "LCD" is the technology that involves sandwiching liquid crystals between two glass plates used in televisions, computer monitors and laptop computers. Plaintiffs brought their claims for injunctive relief under Section 16 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 26 and for violations of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. §1, as well as damages under antitrust and other laws. Settlements of $1.1 billion were achieved for the Indirect Purchaser Classes.

Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation
(N.D. Ohio) The claim filed under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, concerned allegations of a conspiracy by manufacturers to raise prices for polyurethane foam, a product with many uses, including installation under carpeting. As a result of this activity occurring between January 1999 and July 2010, the plaintiffs paid artificially higher prices for polyurethane foam. In total, over $400 million was collected in settlements and distributed to a class of direct purchasers within the United States.

Fresh and Process Potatoes Antitrust Litigation
(D. Idaho.) Keller Rohrback was involved in litigating this successful antitrust action. The claim filed under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, concerned allegations of a conspiracy to raise prices for potatoes. As a result of this activity, the plaintiffs paid artificially higher prices for potatoes than absent the conspiracy. In December 2015, the Court approved a settlement with all defendants. Under the terms of that settlement defendants paid the class $19.5 million and adopted practices which are estimated to be of value to the class in excess of $1.5 billion.

Anadarko Basin Oil and Gas Antitrust Litigation
(W.D. Okla.) The lawsuit claims that Chesapeake Energy Corp., Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C., SandRidge Energy, Inc. and SandRidge Exploration and Production, L.L.C. unlawfully conspired to fix, raise, maintain or stabilize lease bonuses and royalties in the Mississippi Lime Play of the Anadarko Basin Region in order to reduce payments to the leaseholders. As a result, the leaseholders did not receive as high of a payment for leasing their minerals or working interests to Chesapeake and SandRidge as they should have received. The Court granted final approval to a settlement in April 2019.

Behrend, et al. v. Comcast Corporation, et al.
(E.D. Pa.). Keller Rohrback served on the Executive Committee of the class action brought on behalf of cable television subscribers in certain counties within the state of Pennsylvania. The action alleged that the owners of certain cable systems illegally conspired to monopolize city cable markets by illegally “swapping” territories. These swapping agreements, in concert with other acts, amounted to agreements to allocate territories and markets designed to avoid meaningful competition, thereby allowing defendants to overcharge consumers for certain cable television services in those urban markets. The Court approved a settlement valued at $50 million.

Nurse Wage Litigation: Fleischman v. Albany Medical Center; Cason-Merenda v. Detroit Medical Center
(N.D.N.Y.); (E.D. Mich.). Keller Rohrback was co-lead counsel in these long-running antitrust actions, which recovered $105 million in underpaid wages resulting from an alleged conspiracy among hospitals to set the compensation of their nurse employees in Albany, New York and Detroit, Michigan.

In re Liquid Aluminum Sulfate Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 2687
(D.N.J.). In 2016, Keller Rohrback filed numerous class action complaints in federal courts on behalf of several municipalities in Washington, California, and Arizona that purchase and use liquid aluminum sulfate (“Alum”) to treat and clean their waste water. The complaints contained claims against the major manufacturers of Alum who allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to artificially inflate the price of this essential chemical used in municipal water treatment. As a result of these antitrust violations, municipalities–and their taxpayers–had overpaid millions of dollars to the co-conspirators for the Alum they purchased during the long life of this conspiracy. In March 2020, the Court authorized the transfer of settlement funds to pay claims of the Settlement Class Members.
 

Ferko v. NASCAR
(E.D. Tex.). Keller Rohrback was counsel for plaintiff, a shareholder in Texas Motor Speedway (TMS), in a lawsuit that charged NASCAR with breach of contract, unlawful monopolization, and conspiring with International Speedway Corporation (ISC) to restrain trade in violation of the antitrust laws. The settlement agreement allowed TMS to purchase North Carolina Speedway from ISC and required NASCAR to sanction a Nextel Cup Series race at TMS in the future, relief that was valued in excess of $100 million.

In re Vitamins Antitrust Litigation
(D.D.C.). Keller Rohrback played a significant role in litigating this MDL case, one of the largest and most successful antitrust cases in history. Chief Judge Thomas Hogan certified two classes of businesses who directly purchased bulk vitamins and were overcharged as a result of a ten-year global price-fixing and market-allocation conspiracy. Recoveries for the class through settlement and verdict totaled over $1 billion.

Johnson v. Arizona Hospital & Healthcare Association
(D. Ariz.). Keller Rohrback represented agency nurses who worked at various Arizona hospitals seeking to recover the underpayment of wages resulting from a conspiracy to suppress the cost of agency nurses. The class achieved 16 settlements of over $26 million.

Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories v. Hoffman-La Roche, Inc.
(D.D.C.). Keller Rohrback served on the executive committee of this class action lawsuit on behalf of direct purchasers of thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase (Taq), an essential input to technologies used to study DNA. The lawsuit alleged that various Hoffman-La Roche entities, in concert with the Perkins Elmer Corp., fraudulently procured a patent for Taq with the intent and effect of illegally monopolizing the Taq market. The court approved a $33 million settlement in 2008.

Cox v. Microsoft Corp.
(D. Md.). Keller Rohrback served on the executive committee of plaintiffs’ counsel in this MDL class action challenging Microsoft’s monopolistic practices. A class of direct purchasers of operating system software achieved a settlement of $10.5 million.

Daisy Mountain Fire District v. Microsoft Corp.
(D. Md.). Keller Rohrback obtained a settlement in excess of $4 million on behalf of a class of Arizona governmental entities that indirectly purchased operating systems and software from Microsoft for overcharges resulting from Microsoft’s monopolistic practices. The settlement returned millions of dollars to local government entities at a time of severe budget crisis in the state.

Transamerican Refining Corporation v. Dravo Corp.
(S.D. Tex.). Keller Rohrback served as co-lead counsel in this class action filed on behalf of all cost-plus purchasers of specialty steel pipe. Fabricators and suppliers of that pipe were sued on allegations of a nationwide price fixing conspiracy. The class, comprised mainly of owners of electric generating plants and oil refineries, achieved settlements over $49 million.

In re Delta Dental Antitrust Litigation
(N.D. Ill.). Ryan McDevitt serves on several of the plaintiffs’ committees in the sprawling multistate Delta Dental antitrust litigation on behalf of dentists nationwide, in which the numerous state Delta insurers are alleged to have coordinated efforts not to compete and to abuse their monopsony power in the market for dental insurance throughout the United States.