Class action must first go to arbitration - Supreme Court
Publish date: 16 November 2004
Issue Number: 1218
Diary: Legalbrief Today
Category: Maritime
A US Supreme Court has upheld an earlier court ruling and ordered that a class action by a group of chemical traders who had accused four giants in the parcel tanker industry of uncompetitive practices, go to arbitration.
The Business Times reports the decision overruled an earlier Connecticut District Court judgment that the arbitration clause in the parties\' charter agreement did not apply to action for damages for anti-competitive conduct. The plaintiffs, JLM Industries, are an affiliated group of companies involved in the buying, selling, trading and shipping of bulk chemicals. The shipping transactions in this case were governed by a standard form voyage charter party known in the industry as \'Asbatankvoy\'. JLM claimed the Asbatankvoy charters were anti-competitive as the four defendants (the owners) had exploited their market power to fix freight rates and carve up the market among themselves. Full report in The Business Times
