A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a complaint against pesticide and seed manufacturers claiming they illegally worked together to stymie e-commerce sales of their products.
The alleged antitrust claim fails on a number of grounds, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said in its April 6 decision.
“Allegations that vaguely refer to ‘Manufacturer Defendants,’ ‘Wholesaler Defendants,’ or ‘Retailer Defendants’ do not meet the requirement to plead ‘who, did what, to whom (or with whom), where, and when,’” the court’s opinion said, quoting previous appellate court decisions.
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In addition, the plaintiff farming enterprises did not adequately allege “parallel conduct” by the defendants, the court said.
“Parallel conduct generally consists of acts that are similar in substance, executed under similar circumstances, and close in time,” the court noted. “Viewed in the context of the complaint as a whole, the allegations that refer to specific defendants do not plausibly suggest parallel conduct because they are not sufficiently similar to each other as to ‘substance, timing, or effect.’”
