Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll Obtains $150 Million Verdict in Choline Chloride Price-Fixing Class ActionOn June 13, 2003, a federal jury in Washington unanimously found four manufacturers and sellers of Vitamin B4 (choline chloride) liable for participating in a ten year global price-fixing and market allocation conspiracy. The jury ordered Japan's second largest trading company, Mitsui & Co., Ltd., its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., DuCoa, LP, a choline chloride manufacturer based in Highland, Illinois, and DuCoa's general partner, DCV, Inc. to pay $49,539,234 in damages. This amount that the class would have paid absent the conspiracy is automatically trebled under the federal antitrust laws. Thus, the value of the verdict to members of the certified Choline Chloride Class is $148,617,702. The Mitsui Defendants, DuCoa, LP, and DCV, Inc. are joinly and severally liable for the damages. The jury rejected the Mitsui Defendants' claims that it did not know of or participate in the choline chloride conspiracy through its wholly owned subsidiary Bioproducts, Inc. Mitsui is Bioproducts' international choline exporter. Bioproducts had previously been granted immunity from the Department of Justice in return for its cooperation in the DOJ's investigation into price-fixing in the bulk vitamins industry. Bioproducts has admitted that it conspired with North American (including DuCoa) and European manufacturers of choline chloride for ten years to fix, raise, stabilize, and maintain the prices for choline chloride worldwide. The Choline Chloride Class is made up of direct purchasers of choline chloride from January 1, 1988 to September 30, 1998 and has been represented since 1999 by three Co-Lead firms: (1) Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld, & Toll; (2) Boies, Schiller & Flexner; and (3) Susman Godfrey. Michael Hausfeld, lead counsel for the Class, gave the closing argument at trial that convinced the jury to find an international trader (Mitsui) liable under the U.S. antitrust laws for the first time. After the verdict, Mr. Hausfeld spoke about the huge victory, stating that "this case signals international traders in commodities affecting prices in U.S. markets can and will be held responsible under U.S. antitrust laws." The trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan (D.D.C.) was the first arising from a criminal investigation of price-fixing in the vitamins industry that became public in 1998. The criminal investigation has led to numerous corporate guilty pleas, jail time being served by the individual conspirators, and the collection of hundreds of millions of dollars in fines -- the most ever issued by the DOJ. Mitsui is one of the last holdouts from a settlement of class action suits that has yielded over $1 billion in payments to customers who bought vitamins. Specifically, Chief Judge Hogan has previously approved four major settlements between certain vitamin defendants and Class Plaintiffs. Choline chloride is a B-vitamin required for the production of meat, eggs, and milk. Typical feed rations for swine and poultry require daily supplementation of choline chloride. Click here to see the attached Special Verdict Form, filled out by the jury. The CMHT Choline Trial Team included: Michael D. Hausfeld, Stewart M. Weltman, Brian A. Ratner, Brent W. Landau, Besrat Gebrewold, Peter Vitelli, Karie Annaccone, Zerai Araya, Jacquelyn Slade, Susan Bollen. For more information, please contact Brian Ratner at bratner@cmht.com |
