Corporate & Securities Law

District Denies Twombly Motion in In re Packaged Ice Antitrust Litigation

By Matthew S. Wild

Yesterday, the United States District for the Eastern District of Michigan denied a motion to dismiss the Direct Purchasers’ Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint in In re Packaged Ice Antitrust Litig., MDL 1952 (Opinion). It held, “Plaintiffs? CAC contains enough factual content to plausibly suggest that these Defendants participated in a nationwide conspiracy to allocate customers and territories and raises a reasonable expectation that discovery will reveal evidence of illegal agreement. The CAC provides Defendants with fair notice of Plaintiffs? claims and the grounds on which they are based, such that these Defendants will know how to respond. The present complaint succeeds where Twombly?s failed because the complaint alleges specific facts sufficient to plausibly suggest that the parallel conduct alleged was the result of an agreement among the defendants.” Slip op. at 38 (citation omitted). It also held that the Complaint contains sufficient allegations of fraudulent concealment to defeat the motion to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds.
Kohn, Swift & Graf, P.C. is interim lead counsel for the direct purchaser class.
Wild Law Group PLLC is interim lead counsel for the indirect purchaser class.

Full post as published by Antitrust Commentary on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).