Chinese state-owned firm faces multibillion-dollar judgement in US price-fixing lawsuit
CHINESE state-owned manufacturing company Irico Group is fighting a potential multibillion-dollar judgment after a court-appointed fact-finder said the company destroyed evidence and flouted a judge’s orders in a US price-fixing lawsuit.
Irico Group’s attorneys in a Thursday (Jun 13) filing in Oakland, California, federal court said such a drastic sanction is not justified and asked US District Judge Jon Tigar to allow the case to go to trial instead.
The plaintiffs in the long-running case accused Irico of participating in a years-long conspiracy to overcharge purchasers of cathode ray tubes once widely used in computer monitors and television screens. The company has denied the claims.
A former federal judge, Vaughn Walker, was appointed in 2013 to oversee disputes about evidence in the sprawling case. Walker in May said Irico intentionally destroyed evidence and flouted court rules, finding that it engaged in “dilatory and egregious litigation misconduct”.
He recommended “terminating” sanctions, which would mean Irico would not stand trial and the plaintiffs would win outright.
Irico’s Thursday filing disputed Walker’s report and recommendations, arguing that it “fails to identify a single instance in which Irico deviated from its standard document-retention practices”.
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Irico’s attorneys and lawyers for the plaintiffs did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The Chinese company, represented by international law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, argued that Walker “misunderstood the scope of their responsibilities” to preserve evidence and had “failed to immediately update primitive electronic systems and Chinese-law-compliant document-retention policies to conform to US practice”.
Irico is the last remaining defendant in the cathode ray tube litigation, which began in 2007. The North American market was the largest for the devices during the class period, according to the complaint. The plaintiffs alleged a price-fixing conspiracy from 1995 to 2007.
Walker’s May report said Irico “has thwarted and evaded its opportunity to defend the case on law and the merits” and that it was not unfair to punish the company with a judgement for the plaintiffs and significant monetary damages. REUTERS
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