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US: Judge shrinks cotton price-fixing lawsuit

By  |  October 1, 2014

Defendants secured a small victory Tuesday as a federal judge narrowed a lawsuit accusing them of manipulating cotton futures prices, say reports.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities, based in the Netherlands, is accused of fixing by a former Glencore Xstrata trader of “uneconomically” overpaying for cotton, causing a manipulation of costs across the market. According to reports, Louis Dreyfus allegedly manipulated prices in 2011, when cotton prices were at their highest-ever since the 1860s.

While US District Judge Andrew Carter allowed both claims under the Sherman Act to proceed last December, this week he dismissed one of those two claims and warned the plaintiffs that they face a “delicate factual balance” on what’s left of the suit.

Full content: Reuters

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