Courtney Jorstad  |  July 7, 2015

Category: Consumer News

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pentair-poolA $600,000 class action settlement has been reached to resolve allegations in a multidistrict litigation (MDL) that Pentair Water Pool & Spa restricted the supply of pool products in a conspiracy with other companies.

Pentair and a group of plaintiffs that are part of the antitrust MDL are asking a Louisiana federal judge to grant preliminary approval to the deal.

The class action settlement was sent to U.S. District Judge Sarah S. Vance on behalf of Arizona, California, Florida and Missouri residents who purchased pool products directly from PoolCorp for their own personal use from January 2008 through July 2013.

Pentair does not admit to any wrongdoing but has agreed to the terms of the class action settlement to avoid the cost, the hassle and uncertainty of going to trial.

The plaintiffs accused Pentair of creating “unlawful vertical agreements with Pool Corporation for the purposes of raising, fixing, maintaining, and/or stabilizing the price of pool products in the pool product distribution market at artificially high levels and in violation of certain state antitrust, unfair competition, and consumer protection laws.”

According to the class action settlement agreement, the terms of the deal are “fair, reasonable, adequate, and in the best interests of the settling plaintiffs and the settlement class.”

The $600,000 class action settlement “includes the costs of the class notice and settlement administration, as well as attorneys’ fees, incentive awards” and any other relevant costs.

The class action settlement amount will be placed into an escrow account at a third party banking institution.

Judge Vance gave final approval to multimillion dollar class action settlements over similar allegations with Hayward Industries Inc. and Zodiac Pool Systems Inc. and direct purchasers of their pool products.

Zodiac, Hayward and Pentair were all charged with conspiring with Pool Corp. for the purpose of keeping their products from being sold to rivals.

Antitrust class action lawsuits filed against Pool Corp. and its suppliers by indirect purchasers made similar price fixing and price gouging allegations as the direct purchasers.

The direct purchasers are represented by Russ M. Herman and Leonard A. Davis ofHerman Herman & Katz LLC, Robert N. Kaplan, Gregory K. Arenson and Elana Katcher ofKaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, Ronald J. Aranoff, Dana Statsky Smith and Tania T. Taveras of Bernstein Liebhard LLP and Jay L. Himes and Robin A. van der Meulen of Labaton Sucharow LLP.

The indirect purchasers are represented by Thomas J.H. Brill of the Law Office of Thomas H. Brill, Gerald E. Meunier of Gainsburgh Benjamin David Meunier & Warshauer LLC, John F. Edgar of Edgar Law Firm LLC, Isaac L. Diel of Sharp McQueen PA and Michael Brady of Brady & Associates.

Pentair Water Pool & Spa Inc. is represented by Michael J. Lockerby and Melinda F. Levitt ofFoley & Lardner LLP and Wayne J. Lee of Stone Pigman Walther Wittman LLC.

Zodiac is represented by Howard Feller and J. Brent Justus of McGuireWoods LLP.

Hayward Industries Inc. is represented by Richard Hernandez and Thomas J. Goodwin ofMcCarter & English LLP.

The Pentair Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit MDL is In re: Pool Products Distribution Market Antitrust Litigation, case number 2:12-md-02328, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the pool products indirect purchaser class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit www.PoolProductsConsumerLawsuit.com for details.

UPDATE 2: Top Class Actions viewers who filed a claim for the pool products price-fixing class action settlement started receiving checks in the mail. 

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2 thoughts onPentair Reaches $600K Class Action Settlement Over Antitrust Claims

  1. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE 2: Top Class Actions viewers who filed a claim for the pool products price-fixing class action settlement started receiving checks in the mail. 

  2. Top Class Actions says:

    UPDATE: Instructions on how to file a claim for the pool products indirect purchaser class action settlement are now available! Click here or visit http://www.PoolProductsConsumerLawsuit.com for details.

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