Parcel Tankers
Practice Area: Antitrust
In this case, originally consolidated in federal court in Connecticut under the name In re Parcel Tanker Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation and presently pending in arbitration in New York City under the name In the Matter of the Arbitration Between Animalfeeds International Corp. v. Stolt-Nielsen SA, et al., Cohen Milstein serves as co-lead counsel on behalf of a proposed class of direct purchasers alleging that Defendants Stolt-Nielsen, Odfjell, Jo Tankers and Tokyo Marine fixed prices of and allocated customers for parcel tanker shipping services between August 1, 1998 and November 30, 2002. This dispute arises out of Defendants' alleged global conspiracy to restrain the world market for parcel tanker shipping services, which caused plaintiffs and the proposed class to pay supracompetitive prices for transportation of bulk liquid chemicals, edible oils, acids, and other specialty liquids using parcel tankers and other related means. This dispute follows Stolt-Nielsen's conditional acceptance into the Amnesty Program of the United States Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, which resulted from a full admission of wrongdoing for participating in the alleged conspiracy. It also follows guilty pleas from Odfjell, Jo Tankers, and several of their executives to tampering artificially with the global market for parcel tanker shipping services, including the collusive fixing of prices for such services. The case currently is in arbitration pursuant to arbitration clauses contained in the relevant purchase contracts.