Florida Cement and Concrete Antitrust Litigation (Indirect Purchaser Matter)

On January 3, 2012, The United States District Court (Southern District of Florida) denied class certification in the indirect purchaser action in favor of our clients, several producers of ready-mix concrete in Florida. The Defendants retained Compass Lexecon expert, Professor Janusz Ordover, to testify regarding class certification issues. The Court found that the typicality and adequacy requirements of Rule 23(a) were not satisfied, a finding sufficient to deny class certification. The Court also found that the Plaintiffs failed to show that impact on direct purchasers is susceptible to common proof, consistent with the Court’s decision in the direct purchaser action. Lastly, the Court indicated that Plaintiffs’ expert erred in assuming a 100% pass-through rate and that such an assumption was counter to industry realities. Mary Coleman, David Weiskopf, and Nauman Ilias, working with a team of research analysts, supported Professor Ordover on this matter. We worked with several legal teams including Bruce Hoffman, Ryan Shores, Melissa Levitt, and Leslie Kostyshak at Hunton & Williams LLP; Shepard Goldfein, Paul Eckles, Matthew Martino, Marissa Troiano, and Nick Danella at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Richard Brosnick and Benjamin Steffans at Butzel Long, and James Cooper and Ryan Watts at Arnold & Porter LLP.