Rubber & Plastics News (subscription required) reports that Goodyear’s antitrust suit against a group of synthetic rubber suppliers will proceed after a federal judge rejected the defendants’ motion for dismissal.
On March 2, 2009, Judge David D. Dowd Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio that the defendants’ arguments for dismissal were insufficient. However, the judge suggested that the issue of whether the charges had passed their statute of limitations might be taken up at a later date.
In the suit, which was filed in May 2008, Goodyear alleges that the defendants overcharged it for polybutadiene and sytrene-butadiene rubber in an international price-fixing cartel. Goodyear seeks treble damages, attorneys’ fees and injunctive relief.
According to R&P News, the defendants in the original case were Bayer A.G.; its subsidiaries Bayer Corp. and Bayer MaterialScience L.L.C.; Dow Chemical Co., with its subsidiaries Dow Deutschland Inc., Dow Deutschland GmbH & Co. OHG and Dow Europe GmbH; Eni S.p.A.; Syndial S.p.A.; and Polimeri Europa S.p.A., with its subsidiary Polimeri Europe Americas Inc.