Aircraft Check Servs. Co. v. Verizon Wireless

A class action antitrust suit on behalf of text messaging customers, claimed conspiracy by providers, in violation of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1, to increase price per use. On remand, after three years of discovery, the district judge granted the defendants summary judgment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, acknowledging that it is difficult to prove illegal collusion without witnesses to an agreement. Competing firms can be expected to keep close track of each other’s pricing and other market behavior and often to imitate that behavior rather than try to undermine it. The plaintiffs presented circumstantial evidence consistent with an inference of collusion, but that evidence was equally consistent with independent parallel behavior. Tacit collusion, also known as conscious parallelism, does not violate section 1 of the Sherman Act. Collusion is illegal only when based on agreement. Agreement can be proved by circumstantial evidence, but the plaintiffs failed to find sufficient evidence of express collusion to make a prima facie case. View "Aircraft Check Servs. Co. v. Verizon Wireless" on Justia Law