Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—E.D. Pa.: Trucker fleet card issuer Comdata settles claims brought by truck stops, (Jul 16, 2014)

By Jody Coultas, J.D.

The federal district court in Philadelphia has entered a final judgment in favor of Comdata Network, Inc., certified a settlement class, and awarded attorney fees and costs in an antitrust suit brought on behalf of U.S. retail fueling merchants (Marchbanks Truck Service, Inc., v. Comdata Network, Inc., July 14, 2014, Gardner, J.).

The suit named Comdata, Comdata’s parent Ceridian Corporation, and three large truck stop chains. A putative class consisting of approximately 5,000 independent truck stops and other retail fueling merchants alleged that Comdata engaged in anticompetitive conduct to maintain its dominance in the trucker fleet card market.

The court certified the following class for settlement purposes: All owners and operators of Truck Stops or other Retail Fueling Facilities with at least one physical location in the United States that paid Merchant Transaction Fees directly to Comdata on Comdata Proprietary Transactions and that were calculated based on a percentage of the face amount of the transaction between March 1, 2003 and March 17, 2014 with the exception of Mobile Fuelers, Wilco-Hess locations, the Pilot Defendants, the TA Defendants, and Love's and any of the parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, franchisees or employees of any of the Defendants.

The defendants agreed to pay up to $130 million to settle the antitrust suit. In addition, Comdata agreed to engage in a good faith negotiation relating to merchant transaction fees with buying groups composed of many members of the settlement class, among other prospective relief.

The court found that the settlement agreement resulted from extensive bona fide arm's-length good faith negotiations between the parties, and was fair, adequate, and reasonable. This case was highly complex, expensive, and time consuming, there were no objections to the settlement by class members, and class members’ counsel had a full appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of their case while negotiating the settlement. The class would have faced numerous and substantial risks in establishing liability and damages at trial.

Class members, as part of the settlement agreement, granted to each Releasee the broadest general release and covenant not to sue allowed by law, which shall unconditionally and forever bar Plaintiffs and Settlement Class Members from bringing, prosecuting, or participating in any and all claims, known or unknown, that could have brought against the defendants. The claims were dismissed with prejudice.

The court granted class counsel over $43 million in attorney fees and over $6 million to reimburse expenses incurred in the prosecution of the lawsuit. The fees and expenses were to be paid from the aggregate settlement fund in accordance with the terms of the settlement agreement.

The case is No. 07-1078-JKG.

Attorneys: Eric L. Cramer (Berger & Montague, PC), Marc Pilotin (Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann and Bernstein, LLP), and Dale Hugh Oliver (Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP) for Marchbanks Truck Service, Inc., Mahwah Fuel Stop, and Walt Whitman Truck Stop, Inc. Abram J. Ellis (Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP) and J. Gordon Cooney, Jr. (Morgan, Lewis, & Bockius LLP) for Comdata Network, Inc. Carolyn P. Short (Reed Smith LLP) for Ceridian Corp. Jane E. Willis (Ropes & Gray) for Travelcenters of America LLC. Matthew L. Mcginnis (Ropes & Gray LLP) for TA Operating LLC and Travel Centers of America Holding Co. LLC.

Companies: Marchbanks Truck Service, Inc.; Mahwah Fuel Stop; Walt Whitman Truck Stop, Inc.; Comdata Network, Inc.; Ceridian Corp.; Travelcenters of America LLC; TA Operating LLC; Travel Centers of America Holding Co. LLC

Cases: Antitrust PennsylvaniaNews