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US: GM battles shippers on price-fixing in 3rd circuit

 |  November 17, 2016

The giants of the automotive industry contend that international shipping companies have been fixing the prices on vehicle transport for years, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars. With their eye on treble damages available under federal law, they pushed the Third Circuit on Thursday to put gas in the case.

As laid out in the early lawsuits, various automotive companies and manufacturers claimed that they paid excessive fees to ship vehicles from overseas.

General Motors, for example, claims to have overpaid one Japanese shipping company nearly $1 million a year annually in excessive car-shipping costs.

US District Judge Esther Salas dismissed the multidistrict litigation last year, however, sending GM and the other to make do with administrative relief before the Federal Maritime Commission.

Salas had dismissed the case on the grounds that shipping-capacity restrictions and antitrust allegations are covered under the 1984 Shipping Act, a maritime law, and not the Clayton Act.

Full Content: Courthouse News

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