Court of Appeals reaches decision in Empagran case: Application of U.S. antitrust law to foreign claims rejected

04-Jul-2005

BASF Aktiengesellschaft is pleased with the decision by the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction to consider antitrust complaints of non-U.S. plaintiffs when there are no alleged domestic effects that proximately caused foreign injury. The decision in the Empagran case was reached on June 28, 2005 and held that plaintiffs could not base their antitrust claims in the United States on conduct that allegedly caused harm outside the United States.

The ruling, which follows the United States Supreme Court's June 14, 2004 decision, affirms the district court's original dismissal of the action.

BASF Aktiengesellschaft was named as one of the defendants in the Empagran litigation, a federal class action filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia purportedly on behalf of all persons who purchased vitamins from the defendants outside the United States over a period of years. The Empagran complaint alleged that the plaintiffs were overcharged on their vitamins purchased as the result of a worldwide conspiracy among the defendants to fix vitamin prices. The case had been reviewed by several U.S. courts, including the Supreme Court, for a number of years.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/47321/court-of-appeals-reaches-decision-in-empagran-case-application-of-u-s-antitrust-law-to-foreign-claims-rejected.html