Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: New Mexico county allegedly engaging in anticompetitive conduct in basalt mining market, (Mar 16, 2015)

By Greg Hammond, J.D.

Santa Fe County and Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Co. (Waste Management) have allegedly violated federal and state antitrust laws by restraining trade in the new basalt mining market in Santa Fe County (Buena Vista Estates, Inc. v. Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Co., Case No. 1:15-cv-00217-WPL-KBM).

Buena Vista Estates, Inc. is a New Mexico corporation that filed suit against Santa Fe and Waste Management on March 13, 2015, alleging that the defendants unlawfully restrained trade in the new basalt mining market. Buena Vista argues that it provides a similar or higher quality, competitively priced basalt mining operation in Santa Fe County. Waste Management was created in 1995 and is a joint authority of the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County for purposes of creating, maintaining, and operating a modern, fully EPA-certified landfill for use by residents of the City of Santa Fe and Santa Fe County.

The complaint alleges that Santa Fe established a one-year moratorium on new mining operations and knowingly formed a mining operation at Caja del Rio Landfill with Waste Management without proper permits and zoning for the operation. This allegedly resulted in an unreasonable restraint of trade on basalt mining operations in Santa Fe, according to Buena Vista, which supposedly provides similar or higher quality basalt at a lower or competitive cost than the mined aggregate from Caja del Rio landfill. The purported anticompetitive actions of Santa Fe and Waste management have forced buyers of basalt to receive lower quality and more costly basalt products, rather than being able to purchase similar or higher quality basalt at competitive prices from Buena Vista, the complaint asserts.

Buena Vista also claims that buyers of basalt in Santa Fe County and the vicinity have been and continue to be injured by the defendants’ attempted anticompetitive conduct, and that buyers will suffer significant harm if Buena Vista is prevented from operating its basalt mining operation. Specifically, Buena Vista argues that buyers will lose a competitive cost provider of similar or higher quality basalt and will lose access to similar or higher quality basalt; and Buena Vista’s elimination from the market would deprive or limit basalt buyers of choice.

The plaintiff is seeking a decree that Santa Fe and Waste Management committed common law unfair competition and violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act and the New Mexico Antitrust Act by restraining trade in the new basalt market in Santa Fe County. In addition, Buena Vista seeks to enjoin Santa Fe and Waste Management from producing, selling, and distributing basalt material from Caja del Rio Landfill.

Attorneys: Pete V. Domenici, Jr. (Domenici Law Firm, P.C.) for Buena Vista Estates, Inc.

Companies: Buena Vista Estates, Inc.; Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency; Santa Fe County

News: Antitrust