Carbon Fiber Price-Fixing Antitrust Litigation
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, along with its co-counsel, filed a class action suit on August 6, 1999 on behalf of direct purchasers of carbon fiber. The case alleges that the eleven defendants fixed the price of carbon fiber sold throughout the United States from January, 1993 to the present.
The suit, entitled Highland Injection Molding, Inc. v. Amoco Polymers, Inc., et al., is pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The suit alleges that the major United States manufacturers and distributors of carbon fiber, Amoco Polymers, Inc., Cytec Fiberite, Inc., Cytec Industries, Inc., Grafil, Inc., Hexcel Corp., Mitsubishi Rayon Company Ltd., Newport Adhesives and Composites, Inc., Toho Carbon Fibers, Inc., Toho Rayon Company, Ltd., Toray Composites (America), Inc., and Toray Industries, Inc. conspired to raise, fix, and maintain artificially high prices of carbon fiber in violation of the federal Sherman Antitrust Act.
The complaint requests an award of treble damages to be distributed to all class members for the increased prices that the members of the class have been forced to pay for carbon fiber. Lieff, Cabraser, along with their co-counsel, including the law firms of Kendrick, Bonas & Nutley, and Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, brought the class action on behalf of the named plaintiff and all United States direct carbon fiber purchasers.
Carbon fiber is a form of graphite. It is normally made from an acrylic fiber called polyacrylonitrile (or PAN) that is carbonized through exposure to extreme heat. Carbon fiber is primarily used to reinforce other materials, such as resins. Sheets of resin that are pre-impregnated with carbon fibers are called "pre-pegs." The resulting composites are very strong for their weight, making an ideal material for airplane and spacecraft parts, for certain industrial equipment, and for sporting equipment such as tennis rackets, fishing rods, and golf clubs. Carbon fibers can be woven into industrial fabrics, or wound into filaments.
If any purchaser of carbon fibers would like further information, they should feel free to contact us.
About Lieff Cabraser
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP is a fifty-plus
attorney law firm with offices in San Francisco, New York and Nashville.
We represent businesses, governments and individuals as plaintiffs in class
and group actions as well as in individual lawsuits in cases involving
substantial losses. Since 2003, the National Law Journal has annually
selected Lieff Cabraser as one of the top plaintiffs' law firms in the
nation.
Lieff Cabraser has played a prominent role in federal
litigation under the Sherman Act on behalf of businesses in numerous markets
including computer components, prescription drugs, polypropylene carpets,
compact discs, credit cards, linerboard, carbon fiber, plastic laminates,
flat glass, industrial pigments and vitamins. We have also successfully
litigated antitrust claims against Microsoft Corporation for monopolistic
practices, and achieved record recoveries against El Paso Gas Co. and wholesale
electric companies for allegedly manipulating the price of energy in California. Learn
more about our firm.
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