6 More Foam Cos. Settle Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuits

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Early this week, antitrust litigation accusing six foam manufacturers of conspiring to fix prices was settled to the tune of $276 million the day before the trial was set to begin in Ohio federal court.

Under the terms of the six settlements filed in Ohio court on Tuesday, FFP Holdings LLC (“FFP”), Foamex Innovations Inc. (“FXI”), Future Foam Inc. (“Future Foam”), Hickory Springs Manufacturing Company (“Hickory Springs”), Mohawk Industries Inc. (“Mohawk”), and Woodbridge Foam Corporation, Woodbridge Sales & Engineering Inc., and Woodbridge Foam Fabricating Inc. (“Woodbridge”) will agree to pay a class of direct consumers up to 80 percent of what they paid to defendants, or nearly $275.5 million. The trial in the antitrust litigation was set to go to trial the next day and the settlement only covers a portion of what experts determined the direct purchasers lost due to the alleged price-fixing scheme.

According to the motion presenting the six settlement agreements to the Ohio court on Tuesday, “Combined with their previous settlements in this litigation, the Class will be recovering a total of $433.1 million – more than 50% of the highest single damages estimate ($836.4 million) by Plaintiffs’ economic expert, Dr. Jeffrey Leitzinger, and more than 80% of Dr. Leitzinger alternative single damages estimate ($506.6 million).”

“Courts have recognized that only an exceptionally few antitrust class action settlements have ever achieved results similar to 50% or 80% of the estimated damages,” continues the motion, “[a]nd such results are all the more noteworthy here, given the armada of defense experts that repeatedly estimated zero class-wide damages, as well as Defendants’ vigorous denial of all liability.”

The court documents also point out, “The new settlements now before the Court were achieved after comprehensive and wide-ranging fact and expert discovery against all Defendants and several third parties; after the Class had successfully moved for certification; and after the Court had denied, in very large part, Defendants’ motions for summary judgment.” Additionally, “[a]s this Court observed when denying Defendants’ motions for summary judgment, this case has involved ‘[m]illions of pages of discovery, hundreds of fact and expert witness depositions, and extensive motion practice ensued.’”

According to court documents, Foamex Innovations Inc. will pay $60 million, Woodbridge Foam Corp. will pay $50 million, Future Foam Inc. will pay $32 million, while $19.5 million will come from Hickory Springs Manufacturing Co. and $16 million from FFP Holdings LLC. There are still some individual direct purchasers proceeding with the litigation, although the direct purchaser Class has settled their claims.

A class of indirect purchasers are also still litigating the case. According to their representative, they had reached their own settlement with Leggett & Platt Inc., and on Monday, the judge stayed that portion of the case. Leggett has already paid nearly $40 million to settle with the direct purchasers.

The direct purchasers are represented by lead counsel Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP.

The indirect purchasers are represented by lead counsel Miller Law LLC and others. Woodbridge is represented by Gibson Dunn.

The Foam Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:10-md-02196, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

UPDATE: If you purchased a product that contains flexible polyurethane foam, such a couch, mattress or carpet padding, you may be entitled to a cash payment from a class action settlement. Find out more here or visit www.PolyFoamClassAction.com for details.

UPDATE 2: On Nov. 20 2017, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks in the mail from the polyfoam indirect purchaser class action settlement worth as much as $234. Congratulations to everyone who filed a valid claim and got PAID!