Tech distributor Avnet wins $268 million antitrust trial verdict
23/05/2023 17:03
By Mike Scarcella
May 23 (Reuters) - A U.S. jury on Monday awarded nearly
$268 million in damages to electronic components distributor
Avnet Inc AVT.O in its lawsuit accusing a leading technology
manufacturer of artificially inflating prices as part of a
global price-fixing conspiracy.
The jury verdict in San Francisco federal court against
defendants Nippon Chemi-Con Corp 6997.T and its Illinois-based
subsidiary United Chemi-Con Inc came after two days of
deliberation at the end of a two-week antitrust trial.
Phoenix-based Avnet, among the country's largest
distributors of connectors and semiconductors, had alleged that
from 2001 to 2014 it was overcharged for capacitor components
widely found in electronic devices including household
appliances, mobile phones and personal computers. Capacitors
store electrical energy and help regulate current movement.
Antitrust litigation over capacitor price-fixing claims has
sprawled for nearly a decade, and private civil and U.S.
government criminal cases have led to hundreds of millions of
dollars in class-action settlements and other penalties.
Avnet opted out of class action settlements involving other
direct purchasers of capacitors.
Lawyers for Nippon Chemi-Con and United Chemi-Con at Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison on Monday did not immediately
respond to a message seeking comment. A representative from
United Chemi-Con did not immediately respond to a similar
request.
A spokesperson for Avnet in a statement thanked the jury and
judge but declined to comment further.
Avnet recorded $24.3 billion in revenue last year.
The jury awarded $89,244,000 in damages, which will be
trebled under U.S. antitrust law to $267.7 million, said Scott
Wagner, an attorney for Avnet at the law firm Bilzin Sumberg
Baena Price & Axelrod. In a pretrial brief, Avnet said it was
seeking $274 million.
Attorneys for Avnet said in court filings that "the
capacitors price-fixing conspiracy is one of the most
coordinated, well documented, and long-running conspiracies in
recent history."
Defense lawyers for Nippon Chemi-Con and United Chemi-Con
disputed liability. The defendants and others argued that out of
Avnet's claimed damages, "only $1.5 million" was tied to
capacitor purchases from the defendants.
"The conspiracy Avnet alleges — both in membership and scope
— simply did not exist," the defense lawyers said in a filing
late last year.
The case is Avnet Inc v Hitachi Chemical Co Ltd et al, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California, No.
3:17-cv-07046-JD.
For Avnet: Robert Turken and Scott Wagner of Bilzin Sumberg
Baena Price & Axelrod
For Nippon Chemi-Con: Joseph Bial of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison
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Capacitor antitrust cases yield $187 million in plaintiffs' fee
awards https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/capacitor-antitrust-cases-yield-187-million-plaintiffs-fee-awards-2023-03-07/
U.S court asked to approve $165 mln capacitor antitrust
settlement https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-court-asked-approve-165-mln-capacitor-antitrust-settlement-2022-04-01/
NEC, capacitor makers lose challenge against $298 mln EU cartel
fine https://www.reuters.com/default/nec-capacitor-makers-lose-challenge-against-298-mln-eu-cartel-fine-2021-09-29/
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(Reporting by Mike Scarcellal; editing by Leigh Jones)
((Mike.Scarcella@thomsonreuters.com;))