Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Motion seeks centralization of airline ticket price fixing suits in New York, (Jul 8, 2015)

By Linda O’Brien, J.D., LL.M.

Related class actions against four leading airlines for conspiring to fix the prices of domestic airline tickets should be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for consolidation or coordinated pretrial proceedings, according to a motion filed before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) (In re Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust Litigation, July 7, 2015).

To date, ten antitrust class actions have been filed against Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines, the four major airlines in the United States. The actions are pending in five districts: three cases in the Eastern District of New York; two cases in the Southern District of New York; two cases in the Northern District of California, two cases in the District of Columbia; and one case in the Northern District of Illinois.

According to the motion by city pension fund State-Boston Retirement System, the centralization of the related actions would promote the goals of 28 U.S.C. §1407 by conserving judicial resources, reducing litigation costs, preventing potentially inconsistent pretrial rulings, eliminating duplicative discovery, and allowing the cases to proceed more efficiently.

The related actions arise out of the airlines’ alleged conspiracy to restrain trade in the market for air passenger transportation services in the United States and allege that the airlines conspired to fix the prices of domestic air passenger transportation through their collective actions to reduce seating capacity in the industry. The actions are in the early stages of litigation, no responsive pleadings or dispositive motions have been filed, and no discovery has been conducted. Centralization of these actions would allow the transferee court to efficiently resolve the common factual and legal issues and address any overlapping discovery, the motion states.

The related actions should be transferred and consolidated or coordinated in the Eastern District of New York because (1) all defendants have significant business operations in and around the Eastern District of New York, including two defendants that have hubs in airports located within the territorial boundaries of the district; (2) it is likely that relevant documents and witnesses will be found in and around the district given the defendants’ significant business operations in New York; (3) the Eastern District of New York is convenient for all parties and has relatively low volume of pending multi-district litigation, making it well-suited to devote the necessary resources to manage the litigation; and (4) the district has demonstrated considerable expertise in the management of complex antitrust cases.

Attorneys: Gregory S. Asciolla, Jay L. Hines, Garrett J. Bradley, Robin A. van der Meulen, and Matthew J. Perez (Labaton Sucharow LLP) for State-Boston Retirement System.

Companies: Delta Airlines, Inc.; American Airlines, Inc.; Southwest Airlines, Co.; United Airlines, Inc.

News: Antitrust