To our clients and friends:
SEPTEMBER 7, 2007
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Second Circuit’s Expansive
Application of Recent Supreme
Court Antitrust Jurisprudence
Eases Burden on Defendants
In recent years, in cases involving the telecommunications industry, the
Supreme Court has narrowed substantially the situations where an
alleged monopolist has an obligation to deal with competitors
(“Trinko”)1 and where allegations of parallel conduct are sufficient to
state an antitrust claim (“Twombley”).2 There has been considerable
speculation as to how broadly the lower federal courts would apply
these cases and as to whether any of these decisions would be limited to
the highly regulated and complex telecommunications industry.3 On
the day after Labor Day, the United States Court of Appeals for the
Second Circuit provided an important partial response in a case with
allegations of conspiracy and attempted monopolization involving a
firm not in the telecommunications industry by affirming the dismissal
of an antitrust complaint.
Plaintiffs in In re Elevator Antitrust Litigation4 represented a putative
class of persons who “purchased elevators and/or elevator maintenance
and repair services” from sellers of elevators and maintenance service.
The complaint alleged:
zprice fixing;
za conspiracy to monopolize the markets for the sale and
maintenance of elevators; and
zan attempt to monopolize a unilateral monopolization by each
defendant of the maintenance market for its own elevators by
making it difficult for independent maintenance companies (and
each other) to service each defendant’s elevators.
The district court had dismissed the case, and the plaintiffs appealed
that dismissal.
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Document hosted at
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