Chicago Area Milk Lawsuit (did Dominick's and Jewel illegally conspire to raise Milk prices?)

A class action lawsuit has been brought against Jewel Food Stores and Dominick's Finer Foods, alleging that Jewel and Dominick's conspired to fix, raise or maintain the retail price of fluid milk at their Chicagoland-area stores. Jewel and Dominick's deny all allegations of wrongdoing, and maintain that they set their prices independently and lawfully.

I dunno why you'd be skeptical, Cat.

Well, I actually took the trouble to read Dominicks' and Jewel's responses to the lawsuit. I think Jewel listed something like 19 defenses to the lawsuit, most of which would bar it totally [e.g. to the extent that the plaintiffs were damaged by any conduct of the defendants, it was because they allegedly willfully paid the defendant's price rather than buying their milk from the thousands of other outlets which the plaintiffs admit were not part of the alleged conspiracy]. For good measure, though, both Jewel and Dominick's do make a claim under the statute of limitations, on the basis that the defendants' pricing was not secret: the store's prices were publicly available and in fact the defendants allegedly paid them; the defendants therefore had no good reason to delay filing the lawsuit for years after the alleged start of the forbidden behavior.

BTW, it was interesting to look at the tables of retail prices for milk posted by the plaintiffs (even though the defendants specifically and explicitly denied that all the information therein was correct, since they failed to note sales that were in effect at the time). The tables showed that while Jewel and Dominick's stores that were near each other often charged similar prices, the prices often weren't identical, and there were often store-to-store differences.

Further, the defendants noted that many of the behaviors of which the defendants accused the stores (e.g. sending staffers to neighboring stores to check prices) were in fact pro-competitive. Further, all the claims of actual illegal activity were hedged with "It is perceived that", or "It is believed that", or other such comments.

BTW, there were two things I found noteworthy in looking over the responses to the claims:

Lawyers automatically deny almost everything, even when they have no particular reason to believe it false.
The lawsuit completely failed to make any case as to why--if milk was cheaper elsewhere--consumers couldn't get the cheaper milk.

If there were any merit to the price-fixing charges (which I doubt) the plaintiffs would still have to show damages; if they worked at it they should be able to put forth an actual argument (which wouldn't work on us, but might a jury). For example, one could argue that the store deliberately priced its milk five to 20 cents over what a nearby store charged, knowing that customers who used Dominick's/Jewel for their "one-stop-shopping" would have to spend more than 20 cents' worth of time, fuel, and aggravation to buy a competetitor's milk. While we here would recognize that as being the action of a shrewd but competant business, a typical jury might be pursuaded that such a thing was an evil capitalist plot.

Anyway, if I send in the opt-out, who has to go through the expense of processing it? If the plaintiffs' lawyers would bear the expense, I might send it in just on principle.

I didn't bother to read the complaint once I saw who was in the plaintiff's chair.

One of the named attorneys, Phil Rock... well, he's been in Illinois politics long enough to know that this one's a sure thing, no matter what.

I live near you, and there are at least 2 dozen (if not more) places I can buy milk (besides Jewel and Dominick's)

Typically I can get a gallon of brand name milk at Walgreens or a gas station (on a regular basis, not on sale) for at least a dollar less than the grocery chains

What the lawyers are suing for is laziness.

I think I might file as a non-class member based on your idea.In fact, we'd be doing a public service if we had the whole FReepin' place opt out, wouldn't we?

What the lawyers are suing for is laziness.

Couldn't have said it better myself.
I live downstate, and shop at Jewel for meat and produce. For everything else, there's Wal-Mart (and sometimes Target).

Given that there's usually a Walgreen's or a Quik Stop right next door to a Jewel, it's hard to argue that consumers are "forced" to buy milk for an inflated price.

The money wasted on this stupid suit would be better spent on remedial math classes to teach the next generation that they'll have more cash if they consistently spend $1.99 for a gallon of milk rather than $2.99.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.