Emmanuel Hurtado recently spoke to Packaging Dive about the class-action antitrust lawsuit brought on by Artuso Pastry Foods Corp. against eight of the largest containerboard producers – Cascades, Georgia-Pacific, Graphic Packaging International, Greif, International Paper, Packaging Corporation of America, Pratt Industries, and Smurfit Westrock.
In the article, titled “Containerboard price-fixing lawsuit advances,” Emmanuel explains that it is quite uncommon for antitrust lawsuits to be frivolous.
“It’s really difficult to know whether the defendants are going to be liable, or if they’re guilty here, but it’s definitely not frivolous,” Emmanuel tells Packaging Dive. “It’s something that probably is going to have to come out in discovery, but they seem to have pretty solid basis for bringing the action.”
He goes on to say that he believes there are “some very strong facts for the plaintiff that I think are really going to help them in this case,” including the fact that the lawsuit accuses the defendants of being “recidivist antitrust violators.”
“The complaint points to at least 10 instances where a lot of the same players have been found liable for antitrust violations and have paid out sums of more than $300 million,” he continues. “Lots of money has been spent on this type of litigation.”
Emmanuel opines that he has also witnessed the increased consolidation of the market, both in this area and other industries.
“It seems like the market is getting more and more consolidated, which I’ve seen in other industries as well. Those circumstances are really prime for collusion,” Emmanuel adds. “It just makes it a lot easier for the people at the top to engage in these agreements to fix prices, or to otherwise suppress the market.”
