Auto Parts Manufacturers v Ford, GM and Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts
Price Discrimination Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Auto Parts Manufacturers
A group of 140 plaintiffs is suing Ford, GM, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, AutoZone, and Advance Auto Parts. The plaintiffs are seeking a court ruling to be able to use the "product lines" they purchased as their proof of the required "product markets" in their antitrust suit for illegal price discrimination brought under the 1936 Federal Robinson-Patman Act.
The lawyer that filed the case claims that US components manufacturers are being forced to sell their products and product lines to Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, AutoZone and Advance Auto, at 50% of the price at which they are selling the same products to the independent competitors.
This makes the independent distributors unable to compete with the major retailers, and has driven a large percentage of numerous auto-parts manufacturers out of business or into bankruptcy during the past 7 years. According to the handling attorney, "the manufacturers want me to win this lawsuit, but are afraid to state this publicly, for fear of losing their dubious opportunity to sell auto parts to the major auto-parts retailers at a substantial loss."
The defendants in the lawsuit are Wal-Mart, Sam's Club (subsidiary of Wal- Mart), AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Affinia Group, Inc. (private), ArvinMeritor, Inc., Ashland, Inc., Cardone Industries USA (private), Dana Corporation, Pennzoil-Quaker State Company (affiliate of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies), Standard Motor Products, Inc., Stant Manufacturing, Inc. (subsidiary of Tomkins PLC), and The Armor All/STP Products Company (an Australian company).
