Stericycle wins early order blocking rival medical waste firm in competition case

Seaboard

09/03/2023 19:50

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      Stericycle lawsuit alleged unfair competition
    

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      Several employees have jumped to rival Allied
    

  
    By Mike Scarcella
       March 9 (Reuters) - Stericycle Inc  SRCL.O  has won a
court order in Chicago federal court, temporarily blocking
another medical waste disposal and document shredding company
from "falsely" claiming any affiliation with Stericycle and from
contacting its customers.
    U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland's order on March 7 said
Stericycle, which owns the document destruction company
Shred-it, was "likely to prevail on the merits" of its
unfair-competition and trade-secret theft case against Allied
Holdings Group LLC.
    Stericycle filed the lawsuit on Friday in the U.S. District
Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The judge set the
next hearing in the case for April 11.
    Illinois-based Stericycle, which had $2.7 billion in revenue
last year, sued Allied seeking unspecified monetary damages and
permanent injunctive relief. The legal case alleged employees of
Allied were pretending to be tied to Stericycle to get
unidentified clients to drop the company. 
    Stericycle had about 148,000 regulated waste disposal
clients in the U.S. last year, the company said.
    Lawyers for Utah-based Allied at Hall Prangle & Schoonveld
and a representative from the company on Thursday did not
immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
    Stericycle's attorneys at Vedder Price and a company
spokesperson also did not immediately comment.
    The lawsuit said Allied had brought on several Stericycle
employees in recent years. 
    The complaint alleged Allied was orchestrating a "campaign
of unfair competition designed to steal Stericycle customers by
deceiving those customers as to Allied's affiliation or
association with Stericycle." 
    The lawsuit did not name Stericycle clients but said
"Customer B" and "Customer C" were "large, long-term customers
of Stericycle, collectively responsible for millions in annual
fees to Stericycle."
    The complaint said it was not publicly known that Stericycle
had contracts with the two unnamed clients, an indication that
the company's proprietary business information was allegedly
being abused.    
    
    The case is Stericycle Inc. v. Allied Holdings Group LLC,
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, No.
1:23-cv-01322.
    For Stericycle: Jonathon Reinisch and James Garvey of Vedder
Price
    For Allied: Eric Schoonveld and Matthew Kaminski of Hall
Prangle & Schoonveld 

 (Reporting by Mike Scarcella; editing by Leigh Jones)
 ((Mike.Scarcella@thomsonreuters.com;))