Plaintiffs Want Airline Price-Fixing Class Actions Consolidated in Illinois

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A group of plaintiffs who have filed class action lawsuits against major airlines over price-fixing allegations want the lawsuits consolidated into a multidistrict litigation (MDL) and transferred to an Illinois federal court.

There are at least six price-fixing class action lawsuits filed against Delta Air Lines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., United Airlines Inc. and American Airlines Inc. in the last week after the Justice Department said that it is investigating airlines over reports that they worked together illegally to keep airfares artificially high.

“The related actions involve common questions of fact and law,” the plaintiffs say in support of consolidating the price-fixing class action lawsuits.

“Each action alleges that American Airlines, Inc.; Delta Air Lines, Inc.; Southwest Airlines Co,; and United Airlines, Inc. have conspired to fix prices and restricted the capacity of domestic airline travel throughout the United States, allocated markets and territories, and committed other anticompetitive practices designed to unlawfully fix, raise, maintain and stabilize the prices and rates at which domestic airline travel was sold in the United States,” the plaintiffs explain.

In addition, the plaintiffs say that the class action lawsuits all “share common questions of fact, and invariably will generate duplicative and overlapping discovery requests and disputes.”

For these reasons, the plaintiffs who filed the price-fixing conspiracy class action lawsuits against major U.S. carriers, say that the lawsuits should be consolidated “to prevent duplicative discovery and motion practice, avoid the possibility of inconsistent rulings, and conserve the resources of the courts and the litigants.”

They argue that the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division should be the court where the MDL is formed because one of the first price-fixing class action lawsuits was filed in that federal court.

In addition, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines, which control 80 percent of the domestic market, “all have major hubs based at Chicago airports.” United Airlines is headquartered in the Northern District of Illinois and “no other airline is headquartered in any district in which a case has been filed in these matters to date,” they add.

The other airline price-fixing class action lawsuits were filed in California and New York federal courts.

The first of the class action lawsuits was filed on July 1 in a New York federal court by three plaintiffs, hours after the Justice Department said that several airlines, which it didn’t name, were being investigated for colluding illegally in a conspiracy to handicap trade and commerce by fixing ticket prices, in violation of the Sherman Act, which prohibits antitrust behavior.

This was allegedly done by the airlines by limiting the number of seats and flights available, which allowed the airlines to keep airfares high.

The ticket purchasers cite an article printed in The New York Times on June 11, detailing the alleged collusion that took place at a International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference where the airlines “reinforced their commitment to the collusion — which they referred to as ‘discipline.'”

According to the airline price-fixing class action lawsuit, “‘discipline’ is a euphemism for limiting flights and seats, higher prices and fatter profit margins.”

The plaintiffs in the instant motion are represented by Steven A. Hart, Robert J. McLaughlin, Brian H. Elridge of Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney Ltd., Bruce L. Simon, Aaron M. Sheanin, Clifford H. Pearson, Daniel L. Warshaw, Bobby Pouya, Alexander R. Safyan and Benjamin E. Shiftan of Pearson Simon & Warshaw LLP, W. Joseph Bruckner and Heidi M. Silton of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP and Kevin Bruce Love of Criden & Love PA.

Attorney information for the defendants was not immediately available.

The proposed Airline Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit MDL is In re: Domestic Airline Travel Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 2656, before the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.

UPDATE: On Oct. 13, 2015, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the airline price-fixing class action lawsuits to federal court in Washington D.C.

UPDATE 2: On July 21, 2016, Southwest Airlines contends that its business model is fundamentally different from those of other airlines in a way that precludes Southwest from plotting with them in a price-fixing scheme.

UPDATE 3: On Oct. 28, 2016, four of the largest airlines in the U.S. lost their bid to dismiss a nationwide antitrust litigation alleging they conspired to fix ticket prices by artificially limiting the number of seats available for travelers.

UPDATE 4: On Dec. 29, 2017, Southwest Airlines reached a $15 million settlement resolving claims that it conspired with other airlines to raise ticket prices.

UPDATE 5: On June 15, 2018, American Airlines agreed to pay $45 million to settle the price-fixing claims against them.

UPDATE 6: March 2019, a website has been established for consumers who purchased a domestic airline ticket on American, Delta, Southwest, United, Continental, or US Airways to find out about a pending class action lawsuit. Click here to learn more.