LONDON--A U.S. court has dismissed antitrust cases brought
against traders in the aluminum market saying there was no
deliberate conspiracy to push up prices.
The class-action lawsuits alleged that several banks and trading
houses, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), J.P. Morgan Chase
& Co. (JPM) and Glencore Xstrata PLC (GLEN.LN), along with the
London Metal Exchange, sought to restrain output and thereby raise
aluminum prices.
But Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that although actions taken
by traders and warehouses had a "clear" impact on prices, "this was
an unintended consequence of rational profit-maximizing behavior
rather than the product of conspiratorial design."
The cases had claimed that the accused had allegedly slowed the
movement of aluminum out of LME-approved warehouses, pushing up
overall costs in two ways: by limiting the overall supply of
aluminum and by increasing storage costs, according to the
lawsuits.
Last week, the court had already dismissed the London Metal
Exchange as a defendant, saying it had U.K. sovereign immunity.
Write to Matthew Cowley at matthew.cowley@wsj.com
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