Corporate & Securities Law

LEVITT & KAIZER Group Appointed Lead Counsel for Indirect Purchaser Class in the Packaged Ice Antitrust Litigation

By Matthew S. Wild

Yesterday, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan appointed the LEVITT & KAIZER group interim lead counsel, in particular Matthew S. Wild, Richard Levitt, Max Wild and John M. Perrin, for the indirect purchaser class in In re Packaged Ice Antitrust Litigation, MDL 1952.  In granting their motion for appointment over another, Judge Paul D. Borman held,

“Levitt & Kaizer is comprised of an experienced group of attorneys.  Matthew Wild is an experienced anti-trust practitioner, having litigated, on the defense side, many antitrust class action cases, including indirect purchaser lawsuits. Richard Levitt is an experienced trial attorney, having tried many complex cases before federal juries.  Max Wild is a former Assistant United States Attorney and former trial attorney for the Department of Justice. As a trial attorney, Mr. Wild has tried a number of antitrust cases. This breadth of antitrust and trial experience establishes that Levitt & Kaizer has the experience necessary to litigate this complex class action on behalf of the indirect purchaser class.”

Id., Doc. 175, dated June 1, 2009 (attached below).  Max Wild is the principal of the Law Offices of Max Wild.  In addition, John M. Perrin, appointed as liaison counsel for the indirect purchaser class, is the principal of the Perrin Law Firm.

As explained in LEVITT & KAIZER’s complaint, “[t]his class action seeks to recover damages and injunctive relief arising from a long-standing cartel among defendants ? producers of packaged ice in the United States and Canada.  In furtherance of their cartel, defendants agreed to, and did in fact, fix and inflate prices, allocate territories and customers, acquire competitors, refuse to compete and otherwise commit a variety of unlawful and anticompetitive acts.  The purpose and effect of the cartel has been to fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the prices paid for ice sold in plastic bags or large blocks (?packaged ice?) throughout the United States.  Defendants have been the targets of an ongoing criminal investigation by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice.  That investigation has resulted in one guilty plea for a violation Section 1 of the Sherman Act, execution of search warrants and issuance of grand jury subpoenas.  See copy of the complaint below.

Ice Lead Counsel Order

Ice Complaint

Full post as published by Antitrust Commentary on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).