Cases : Antitrust

• Case M&N Trading, LLC v. BofA Securities, Inc., Merrill Lynch, et al.,
  24-cv-1229 (N.D. Ill.)
• Type Commodities, Antitrust
• Status Pending

• Case In re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 16-cv-08637 (N.D. Ill.).
• Type Antitrust
• Status Pending
• Serving as counsel for a certified class of commercial and institutional businesses in a case alleging that numerous poultry producers, such as Tyson and Perdue Farms, conspired to limit production and increase the price of broiler chickens. These big-name poultry producers' conduct additionally led to a criminal investigation and numerous indictments.

• Case In re Credit Default Swaps Auctions Litigation,
  No. 21-cv-00606 (D.N.M.).
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Pending
• We are acting as lead counsel on behalf of the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and the New Mexico State Investment Council alleging that leading credit default swap (CDS) dealers took part in a more than decade-long, multibillion-dollar scheme to manipulate the benchmark prices used to value credit default swap contracts at settlement.

• Case In re Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, No. 20-cv-03556 (N.D. Cal.). 
• Type Antitrust
• Status Pending
• Acting as a court-appointed executive committee member and class counsel representing publishers alleging that Google monopolized and suppressed competition in online display advertising.

• Case In re Effexor XR Antitrust Litigation, 
  No. 11-cv-5479 (D.N.J.). 
• Type Antitrust, Healthcare Fraud
• Status Pending
• Acting as lead counsel and head of the discovery committee to a putative class of direct purchasers of brand name and generic equivalents of extended-release venlafaxine hydrochloride capsules against drug manufacturers. Among the claims, defendants are alleged to have delayed market entry of generic versions and entered reverse payment settlements.

• Case In re North Sea Brent Crude Oil Futures Litigation,
  No. 13-md-02475 (S.D.N.Y.). 
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Pending
• Sole lead counsel on behalf of a proposed class of Brent crude oil futures traders alleging benchmark manipulation.

• Case In re Packaged Seafood Products Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 15-md-02670 (S.D. Cal.). 
• Type Antitrust
• Status Pending
• Representing class members in this case alleging that the defendants, StarKist, Bumble Bee, Chicken of the Sea, and their parent companies, conspired to fix the price of packaged tuna. This case impacts the everyday consumer due to the overwhelming control these three corporations have over the market for this food staple.

• Case Sullivan v. Barclays PLC,
  No. 13-cv-02811 (S.D.N.Y.). 
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Pending
• Class counsel in the benchmark rate antitrust litigation on behalf of a putative class of investors who traded derivative products linked to Euribor, including futures and options contracts on the NYSE LIFFE exchange. The case has already resulted in partial settlements of more than $300 million.

• Case Wacker v. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.,
  No. 15-cv-00994 (S.D.N.Y.).  
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Pending
• Representation of individual silver futures traders alleging manipulation of silver futures spreads. KM achieved a landmark appellate decision in this case establishing pleading standards for monopolization claims in futures markets. The case preceded a related Department of Justice criminal investigation into J.P. Morgan that resulted in an over-$920 million criminal penalty.

• Case In re Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assemblies Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 19-md-02918 (N.D. Cal.). 
• Type Antitrust
• Status Pending
• Ongoing representation of a class of purchasers alleging that defendants fixed the prices of suspension assemblies, a critical component of hard disk drives, raising the prices of computers throughout the U.S. 

• Case Smart v. National Collegiate Athletic Association,
  No. 23-cv-00425 (E.D. Cal.).
• Type Antitrust
• Status Pending
• Ongoing representation of a proposed class of Division I college coaches whose wages were illegally fixed at $0 in Colon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. Recently, the Federal Judge overseeing the case overruled the NCAA’s motion to dismiss the case. The litigation seeks to recover years of back wages on behalf of thousands of hard-working employees who were not paid due to a conspiracy among the NCAA and its member schools.

• Case Dennis v. The Andersons, Inc.,
  No. 20-cv-04090 (N.D. Ill.).
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Pending
• Co-lead counsel of a putative class of exchange-based investors alleging monopolization and manipulation of Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter wheat futures contracts in violation of federal antitrust and commodity exchange laws.

• Case In re JPMorgan Treasury Futures Spoofing Litigation, 
  No. 20-cv-03515 (S.D.N.Y.).
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• Lead counsel in an antitrust case alleging that J.P. Morgan unlawfully and intentionally manipulated U.S. Treasury Futures or Options on U.S. Treasury Futures traded on United States-based exchanges, including but not limited to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, including its subsidiary the Chicago Board of Trade, during the Class Period in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 1, et seq. (the “CEA”) and the common law.  The case resulted in a settlement of $15.7 million.

• Case CFTC Whistleblower Award,
  No. 21-WB-07
• Type Antitrust, CFTC Whistleblower, Commodities, False Claims Act, Whistleblower
• Status Settled
• KM represented the whistleblower who received nearly $200 million, the largest CFTC whistleblower award ever and the second largest whistleblower award arising under the Dodd-Frank and IRS whistleblower programs. The information the whistleblower provided catalyzed investigations by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a U.S. federal regulator, and a foreign regulator into the manipulation of crucial financial benchmarks used by global banks as the basis for the pricing of fixed income securities and derivative products.  The CFTC initially rejected the whistleblower’s award application, but KM's advocacy resulted in a successful appeal for the client.

• Case In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation, 
  No. 13-cv-07789 (S.D.N.Y.).
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• Special fiduciary representation for the exchange-based class for a putative class of participants who traded futures and options in the FX market. The case has already resulted in partial settlements of more than $2.3 billion.

• Case In re Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation, 
  MDL No. 1917 (N.D. Cal.). 
• Type Antitrust
• Status Settled
• KM is one of the core firms in an indirect purchaser antitrust litigation. The case resulted in settlements on behalf of end payers totaling $576.75 million. Specifically, the Special Master in the CRT litigation noted that, “Kirby played an integral role in this case and assumed significant risk . . . Kirby’s work was at a very high level [and] Kirby’s work greatly benefited the Class.”

• Case In re Ductile Iron Pipe Fittings (“DIPF”) Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 12-cv-00169 (D.N.J.). 
• Type Antitrust
• Status Settled
• Co-lead counsel in a case alleging the raising and fixing of prices in the market for ductile iron pipe fittings. The case resulted in a settlement of $4.1 million.

• Case In re Prograf Antitrust Litigation, 
  No. 11-md-02242 (D. Mass.).
• Type Antitrust, Healthcare Fraud
• Status Settled
• In re Prograf Antitrust Litigation, 11-md-02242 (D. Mass. 2015).  Representation of direct purchaser class.  $98 million settlement.

• Case In re LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 11-md-02262 (S.D.N.Y.). 
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• KM filed the first LIBOR manipulation lawsuit on behalf of investors and currently serves as court-appointed co-lead counsel for the exchange-based class alleging the fixing of prices of a benchmark interest rate. The case has resulted in partial settlements of $187 million, which combined represent the largest recovery in a “futures-only” commodities class action litigation.

• Case In re BP Propane Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 06-cv-03541 (N.D. Ill.). 
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• Co-lead counsel for the propane purchaser class. KM secured a $15 million settlement.

• Case In re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation, MDL No. 1456 (D. Mass.); City of New York v. Abbott Laboratories, No. 01-cv-12257 (D. Mass.). 
• Type Antitrust, Healthcare Fraud
• Status Settled
• In re Pharmaceutical Industry Average Wholesale Price Litigation, MDL No. 1456; City of New York v. Abbott Laboratories, No. 01-cv-12257 (D. Mass. 2010).  KM represented the State of Iowa, the City of New York, and forty-two New York State counties in a lawsuit against forty defendant drug manufacturers asserting that they manipulated their average wholesale price data to inflate prices charged to government drug benefits payers.  Recovery of over $225 million for the plaintiffs.

• Case In re Reformulated Gasoline (RFG) Antitrust and Patent Litigation and Related Actions,
  No. 05-cv-01671 (C.D. Cal). 
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• Co-lead counsel in an antitrust class action pertaining to Unocal’s alleged manipulation of the standard-setting process for low-emissions reformulated gasoline in California, which plaintiffs claim caused inflated retail prices. KM obtained a $48 million settlement for indirect purchasers.

• Case In re Potash Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 08-cv-06910 (N.D. Ill.).  
• Type Antitrust, Commodities
• Status Settled
• Member of the leadership group which secured a $13 million settlement for a class of potash purchasers.

• Case Cordes & Co. Financial Services v. A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.,
  No. 06-2143 (2d Cir.).
• Type Antitrust
• Status Settled
• Cordes & Co. Financial Services v. A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., No. 06-2143 (2d Cir. 2007).  Representation of putative class of initial public offerors.  On appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the court reversed the district court’s decision, and held that assignees may be class representatives.  The opinion also clarified the meaning of antitrust injury.

• Case Microsoft Antitrust Cases
• Type Antitrust
• Status Settled
• Co-lead counsel on behalf of classes of indirect purchasers in connection with antitrust proceedings against Microsoft. The litigations resulted in settlements totaling nearly a billion dollars for consumers in the states of New York, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Minnesota (where the litigation proceeded to trial). More recently, KM served as consulting and advisory counsel to Canadian lead counsel based on the firm’s co-lead roles in the U.S. Microsoft cases. The Canadian action resulted in a settlement of $395 million.

• Case In re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation,
  No. 96-cv-05238 (S.D.N.Y.).
• Type Antitrust
• Status Settled
• Class counsel with second largest lodestar in a direct purchaser debit card fee case. The case resulted in a settlement of over $3 billion.