SDNY Dismisses Silver Monopolization Lawsuit But Leaves Door Open For Future Antitrust Suits Concerning Manipulations In The Commodities Markets

On January 12, 2016, Judge Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit against JP Morgan which alleged the bank (and some of its subsidiaries) monopolized silver futures spread trading in late 2010 and early 2011. The court's decision in Shak v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:15-cv-00992-PAE, affirmed that plaintiffs can properly plead a Section 2 monopolization claim under the Sherman Act without precisely defining the relevant market if there is sufficient direct evidence that the defendant controlled price or excluded competition in a relevant market. The court explicitly held that evidence of market manipulation by a dominant player in a commodities market could be enough to prove market power. However, the Court found that plaintiffs failed to adequately plead the second element of a monopolization claim, exclusionary conduct, because they were unable to show that JP Morgan's conduct was anything...