Vitamins
Price-Fixing Antitrust Litigation
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, actively
represents the interests of purchasers of vitamins, bulk
vitamins, and vitamin premixes in class action litigation
against U.S. and foreign vitamin manufacturers.
Background:
The "Vitamins Cartel"
On May 20, 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice announced
that two companies and one executive agreed to plead guilty
to charges of fixing the prices of vitamins A, B2, B5,
C,
E and beta carotene. Hoffman-LaRoche, Ltd. agreed to pay
$500 million, the largest antitrust criminal fine ever
imposed. BASF
AG agreed to pay $225 million as part of its plea bargain.
Previously, on March 2, 1999, the Justice Department
announced that five executives and one company agreed to
plead guilty to participating in the same conspiracy. The
executives were charged with fixing the prices and allocating
sales of vitamin B4 (choline chloride). Lonza AG agreed
to plead guilty to fixing the price and allocating sales
of vitamin B3 (niacin and niacinamide).
California
Vitamins Price-Fixing Class Action
Lieff
Cabraser serves as co-liaison counsel in a class action
brought on behalf of California indirect purchasers of vitamins,
vitamin premixes, and/or other vitamin products purchased
from January 1, 1988 to September 29, 1998.
On
January 18, 2002, the Hon. John E. Munter of the San Francisco
Superior Court granted final approval to a partial settlement
of the case, which required the settling vitamin manufacturers
to pay up to $80 million for the benefit of consumers and
businesses in California.
Of
this amount, the settling defendants agreed to pay $38 million
for the benefit of consumers, pursuant to a court-approved
plan of distribution, to eligible organizations that collectively
are, as nearly as possible, representative of the interests
of the injured consumers, and up to $42 million to persons
and entities that indirectly purchased vitamins and vitamin
products for resale or for incorporation into another product
for resale, where the purchase of the vitamins or vitamin
products was by a purchaser in California, from a seller
in California, or delivered by the seller to a purchaser
in California if the purchaser's principal place of business
was in California. Lieff Cabraser is continuing to litigate
vigorously their clients' cases against the non-settling
defendants, who constitute approximately 15% of the total
market of bulk vitamins.
To
read a copy of the court's order approving the consumer
class settlement, click
here.
To
read a copy of the court's order approving the commercial
class settlement, click
here.
Federal
Vitamins Price-Fixing Class Action
Lieff Cabraser is also involved in a federal court action
relating to the price-fixing of vitamins. This case is
captioned Midwestern Pet Foods, Inc. v. F. Hoffman-LaRoche,
Ltd., and is pending in the United States District Court
for the District of Columbia as part of the coordinated
litigation, In re vitamin Antitrust Litigation,
MDL No. 1285. A partial settlement of the cases valued
at over $1 billion has been approved by the court. Further
information can be obtained by calling the Settlement Administrator
at 1-877-733-2323.
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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