Interior Molded Door Makers Accused of Price Fixing Agreement

An antitrust class action lawsuit alleges the Jeld-Wen and Masonite companies entered into an illegal price fixing agreement to control the market for interior doors.

Plaintiffs Andrew K., Benjamin P., and Sawbill Companies Inc. filed the claim last month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. All of the instigating plaintiffs say they purchased molded interior doors from the named defendants for uses other than resale, and they claim financial injury based on having to pay more for the doors because of the two companies’ alleged price fixing agreement.

A Corporate Merger and Reduction in Supply

According to the lawsuit, Jeld-Wen merged with one of only two manufacturers of doorskins, the exterior surface of a composite door. In the interior molded door market, a doorskin is a vital component needed to completely make a door for resale.

Molded doors tend to be hollow and consist of a wood frame which has been sandwiched between two doorskins made to look like paneling. The most common among them is the six-panel door which is sold in a primed white that can be painted by the consumer.

Solid wood doors are expensive to make. Interior molded doors are cheaper, but the components known as doorskins are the biggest investment, according to the case. It is estimated that 70 percent of the manufacturer’s cost comes from doorskins which must be made using high pressure and temperature.

Once the Craftmaster company was taken over by Jeld-Wen, the plaintiffs say, only the latter and the Masonite company remained in the market of creating doorskins for door-makers. Because both defendants also made the completed products—the interior molded doors themselves—they allegedly had motivation for reducing the competition among themselves by entering into a price fixing agreement.

Smaller door-making companies still holding 20-25 percent of the market share were purportedly at the mercy of the only two doorskin manufacturers and their price fixing agreement. The plaintiffs say they had to pay more to complete their product, and this cost was allegedly passed onto the plaintiff consumers and others like them.

A previous legal action filed under the Clayton Antitrust Act in June 2016 sought to prove anticompetitive business activity on the part of Jeld-Wen. A favorable verdict was decided on behalf of the filing plaintiffs in February 2018, and they were granted nearly $10 million in damages and $46 million in lost profits.

The Sherman Antitrust Act, a federal law that was passed nearly 130 years ago in 1890, was the first to make it illegal for one to two businesses to devise a product price fixing agreement. The Clayton Act amended the Sherman Act by prohibiting not only monopolies but also business practices conducive to their formation such as coming to a price fixing agreement.

The Jeld-Wen and Masonite Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00850 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division.

Join a Free Interior Molded Doors Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you own or work for a company that sold Jeld-Wen and/or Masonite interior molded doors from October 2012 to the present or if you purchased the doors from a retailer, you may have been the victim of an antitrust price-fixing conspiracy. Legal help is available.

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