Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—S.D.N.Y.: Electric power line construction prime contractor's bid-rigging claim against subcontractors dismissed, (Jun 3, 2026)

By Kenneth H. Ryesky, M.B.A., J.D.

Bid-rigging allegations by prime contractor pocked by incongruities that render its narrative of conspiracy difficult to credit.

The federal district court in New York City dismissed the bid-rigging allegations by an electric transmission power line construction contractor against two erstwhile subcontractors. The subcontractors were successively engaged to construct conduits underneath a river for power cables to bring electricity from Canada to New England. The court dismissed the federal Sherman Act claim and certain other state law claims; also dismissed was the claim for declaratory judgment on a mechanic's lien, over which the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain (NECEC Transmission LLC v. Campos EPC, LLC, No. 1:25-cv-05351-JPO (S.D.N.Y. June 1, 2026)).

NECEC Transmission LLC is a subsidiary of a company that is engaged in the provision of environmentally-clean energy. NECEC, along with a Canadian "clean energy" provider, formed the New England Clean Energy Connect Project joint venture (the Project) to build infrastructure to bring electrical power from Quebec to the New England regional power grid. The Project was the successful bidder for a contract let by the Massachusetts government to oversee construction of a high voltage direct current transmission line from Canada to Lewiston, Maine, which would contribute electrical energy to consumers in Massachusetts and other New England states.

In 2021, NECEC entered into a $6 million Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EP&C) subcontract with H.D.D. Company, Inc. (HDD) to drill and install seven conduits underneath the Kennebec River in Maine as part of the Project. Campos EPC, LLC (Campos) was engaged by HDD as a second-tier subcontractor for the engineering work. In August 2021, work on the transmission line was halted with a stop work order as a result of a statewide referendum.

After the stop work order was rescinded in 2023, NECEC and HDD entered into discussions about restarting the construction work. In the course of those discussions, HDD insisted on $12 million to complete the Project. NECEC rejected HDD's demands, and terminated the EP&C subcontract with HDD on February 1, 2024. Following that termination, HDD upped its demanded price for completion of the Project to $19 million. NECEC put the EP&C subcontract up for rebid, in which Campos was the successful bidder for $20 million. Except for the contractual price, this new EP&C subcontract was substantially the same as the 2021 HDD subcontract.

Campos proposed to drill a bore path for the conduits in the NECEC right-of-way. NECEC obtained the necessary governmental agency approvals on July 15, 2024. Campos then proposed an alternative bore path, which NECEC rejected due to the additional delays that would ensue in obtaining the required governmental agency approvals. Campos then agreed to proceed with its initial bore path proposal, and distributed its Issued for Construction (IFC) drawing for that bore path. Unbeknownst to NECEC at the time, Campos had begun actual drilling for its alternative bore path which NECEC had rejected; this drilling operation made it impracticable to drill additional bore paths in the future.

Following disputes that arose regarding Campos's requests to NECEC for change orders, Campos gave notice on February 3, 2025 that it would stop work effective 7:00 PM that evening if its change order requests were not approved by NECEC, and also threatened to stop work effective February 7, 2025 if it were not advanced $8 million by then. As the work progressed, Campos's performance on the subcontract was faulty in many respects, including damages to two of the seven conduits during the installation process.

Campos filed a Notice of a Mechanic's Lien against NECEC in June of 2025 for more than $2.9 million it claimed as payments outstanding under the subcontract. On August 4, 2025, amended that Notice to more than $3.3 million and filed an action in a Maine state court to enforce that lien.

NECEC sued HDD and Campos, alleging Sherman Act violation of illegal bid-rigging, together with other claims under New York state law.

Sherman Act-bid rigging. The court granted the motions by HDD and Campos to dismiss NECEC's bid-rigging claim. Here, there were inconsistencies in NECEC's allegations. Campos's proposal on the EP&C rebid listed an entity (Cherokee) as a second-tier subcontractor for drilling, but a few days after the subcontract award, Campos informed NECEC that Cherokee would be unable to perform, and that HDD would do the work instead. It made no sense that following all of the problems with the HDD subcontract, NECEC accepted Campos's $20 million proposal the day after it was submitted when other prospective contractors who could have proposed better deals if Campos's bid was inflated as alleged (there were 46 bidders on the initial prime contract with the Massachusetts government). Had there been a bid-rigging collusion by HDD and Campos on the rebid for the EP&C subcontract, such collusion would depend upon (1) NECEC rejecting all of HDD's proposals during the two-month negotiations after the stop work order was lifted; (2) Campos's bid would not be undercut by another bidder; and (3) Cherokee would have no objection to being replaced as a second-tier subcontractor within a week after the subcontract was won.

NECEC's allegations that HDD and Campos had worked together on other projects and otherwise engaged in parallel conduct were not sufficient to bring the allegation "across the line from conceivable to plausible" for antitrust purposes.

For similar reasons, NECEC's state law claims of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and tortious interference were also dismissed.

Declaratory judgment. The court granted dismissal of NECEC's claim for declaratory judgment that Campos's mechanic's lien was null and void. The mechanic's lien pertained to the title of real property in Maine, and accordingly was an in rem matter over which only a court in Maine would have jurisdiction, and not a federal district court in New York.

The Case is No. 1:25-cv-05351-JPO.

Judge: Oetken, J.

Attorneys: Emily M. Snoddon (Kirkland & Ellis LLP) for NECEC Transmission LLC. Alvin Bertram Dunn (Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP) for Campos EPC, LLC.

Companies: NECEC Transmission LLC; Campos EPC, LLC

Cases: Antitrust NewYorkNews