Law Commons^™

Striking An Efficient Balance: Making Sense Of Antitrust Standing In Class Action Certification Motions, Kelly J. Bozanic

Kelly J. Bozanic

Class actions are powerful litigation devices, especially in antitrust cases. Plaintiffs who otherwise would not have the economic incentive to pursue judicial redress are vested with status as equal players in the commercial marketplace. The aims of both the antitrust laws and Rule 23(b)(3) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are served through class actions, yet class actions also bear the potential of negatively impacting the consuming public. This is so, because district court judges considering certification motions face seemingly contradictory standards when it comes to certifying an antitrust class. As a result, plaintiff classes are often given an …

The Pleading Problem In Antitrust Cases And Beyond, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

In its Twombly decision the Supreme Court held that an antitrust complaint failed because its allegations did not include enough “factual matter” to justify proceeding to discovery. Two years later the Court extended this new pleading standard to federal complaints generally. Twombly’s broad language has led to a broad rewriting of federal pleading doctrine.

Naked market division conspiracies such as the one pled in Twombly must be kept secret because antitrust enforcers will prosecute them when they are detected. This inherent secrecy, which the Supreme Court did not discuss, has dire consequences for pleading if too much factual specificity …

Antitrust, Class Certification, And The Politics Of Procedure, Joshua P. Davis, Eric L. Cramer

Joshua P. Davis

This Article develops two arguments against a possible trend in federal appellate courts toward imposing a new, heightened standard for class certification in antitrust cases. Recent case law can be read to imply that trial judges may make findings of fact on the merits in deciding class certification, including about whether plaintiffs will be able to show with class-wide evidence that every class member was harmed by allegedly anticompetitive conduct. The first argument is that the potential new standard would require a showing at class certification on an issue—whether all class members were injured—that plaintiffs need not, and typically do …