Rubber Chemicals Class Action
Maurice Blackburn brought this class action in the
Federal Court of Australia against major international chemical
manufacturers Bayer and Chemtura (formerly Crompton /
Uniroyal).
The case alleged a conspiracy to fix the price of Rubber
Chemicals sold in Australia between 1995 and 2001, in breach of
sections 45 and 45A of the Trade Practices Act 1974
(Cth). It was claimed that the prices of certain
Rubber Chemicals were fixed, controlled and maintained through
secret arrangements between various Rubber Chemicals manufacturers,
pursuant to which they allocated customers, sales volumes and
market shares by preventing, restricting or limiting the supply of
Rubber Chemicals.
The case was commenced in 2007 and hotly contested over a
four-year period.
Settlement
In September 2011 Justice Tracey of the Federal Court of
Australia approved a settlement in this matter which delivered
compensation representing nearly 70% of claimants' losses.
This is the third successfully concluded cartel class
action in Australian legal history. Each of those
three class actions (Vitamins, Amcor/Visy and Rubber
Chemicals) was conducted by Maurice Blackburn. We are
proud to have helped businesses to recover monies lost to them
through this instance of corporate misbehaviour.