U.S. companies have paid $96B in antitrust fines, settlements since 2000

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Antitrust fines, settlements overview: 

• Who: National policy research center Good Jobs First has released a corporate research project on illegal corporate price fixing. 
• Why: The report revealed large companies in the U.S. have paid a total of $96 billion in fines and settlements to resolve antitrust claims since 2000. 
• Where: Nationwide. 

Large companies operating in the U.S. have paid a total of $96 billion in fines and settlements stemming from antitrust penalties since 2000, according to a newly released corporate research project by national policy research center Good Jobs First. 

The fines and settlements were paid to resolve allegations revolving around “covert price-fixing and related anti-competitive practices in violation of antitrust laws,” according to Good Jobs First. 

“Illegal pricing conspiracies have occurred in a wide range of industries, affecting the cost of products ranging from everyday grocery items and auto parts to chemicals and electronic components,” the report said. 

The corporate research project was conducted as part of an expansion of the organization’s Violation Tracker database, which Good Jobs First describes as “the first wide-ranging database on corporate misconduct.” 

The database covers banking, consumer protection, false claims, environmental, wage & hour, safety, discrimination, price-fixing and “other cases resolved by federal regulatory agencies and all parts of the Justice Department since 2000,” according to Good Jobs First. 

Antitrust claims brought by state attorney generals, class action lawsuits, federal regulators, report says

Of more than 2,000 cases where companies made payments to resolve criminal and civil price-fixing allegations, 357 were brought by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department and other federal regulators and yielded $26 billion in penalties, according to the report. 

An additional 269 cases brought by state attorney generals reportedly yielded a total of $15 billion in penalties, while a total of 1,407 class action lawsuits brought by private plaintiffs yielded $55 billion in penalties. 

The most penalized industry was banks and investment firms, which paid a total of $33 billion in penalties, primarily to resolve claims they “schemed to rig interest-rate benchmarks,” according to the report. 

Pharmaceuticals was reportedly the second-most penalized industry — with a total of $11 billion in penalties — followed by electronic components ($8.6 billion), automotive parts ($5.3 billion), power generation ($5 billion), chemicals ($3.9 billion) and healthcare services ($3.5 billion) industries. 

A class action lawsuit was filed against Google earlier this month by a consumer arguing the company — along with Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. — has monopolized the market for the sale of display-ad placements. 

Have you benefited from an antitrust settlement since 2000? Let us know in the comments! 

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