Robins Kaplan LLP announced today that the Court granted final approval of a $19.5 million class settlement in a price-fixing litigation brought by indirect purchasers of interior molded doors against the industry’s two leading manufacturers. The settlement fully resolves antitrust and consumer protection claims asserted by a class of consumers and businesses who purchased defendants’ doors from home improvement stores and wholesalers between March 1, 2014 and September 4, 2020.
Notably, the case, which was litigated on the Eastern District of Virginia’s “Rocket Docket,” reflects an expedited resolution to a complex and sprawling antitrust litigation. It was resolved less than two years after the action was first filed—in the midst of the global pandemic.
Robins Kaplan filed one of the first complaints in this litigation stemming from manufacturers Jeld-Wen and Masonite’s alleged series of excessive and coordinated price hikes of interior molded doors.
Filed in late 2018, this action follows a successful competitor lawsuit against one of the defendants for alleged anticompetitive conduct stemming from the company’s acquisition of a rival doorskins business. Doorskins are the primary input used to manufacture interior molded doors. In the competitor case, a jury awarded the private litigant damages and future lost profits and also ordered the defendant to divest one of its manufacturing plants—the first time a divestiture was ordered in a private action under Section 16 of the Clayton Act.
“We are pleased to be able to secure a recovery for consumers and businesses who we allege were injured by defendants’ conduct,” said co-lead counsel William V. Reiss of Robins Kaplan LLP. “Given the litigation’s myriad complexities and the challenges attendant to litigating in the midst of a global pandemic, we believe the settlement reflects a swift, successful, and efficient recovery for class members.”
This litigation, In re Interior Molded Doors Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, case number 3:18-cv-00850, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Gustafson Gluek PLLC and The Joseph Saveri Law Firm serve as co-lead counsel in the matter along with Robins Kaplan LLP.
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