Dow Chemical agrees to pay $835 million to settle a long-running antitrust lawsuit. Reports say that the death of Justice Antonin Scalia reduced Dow Chemical's chances of winning the class action case at the Supreme Court.
Bloomberg reported that Dow Chemical, the largest US chemical maker, will settle its lawsuit to a $1.06 billion grant to purchasers of compounds for urethanes, which is used to make foam upholstery for furniture and plastic walls in refrigerators. The Michigan-based company sent a request to the Supreme Court to take the case on appeal. The late Justice Scalia, who was one of the court's conservative judges on the nine-member court, had voted to scale back the reach of such group cases.
The settlement will put the class action case to an end, says Fox. The company thinks it can no longer win its appeals because of Justice Scalia's death on February 13. Scalia's death and political nominees' dispute have created a prospect of 4 to 4 deadlock in controversial cases.
Portland Press Herald reported that such settlement would benefit shareholders. Although Dow Chemical is settling the case, the company insisted that they were not involved in any conspiracy and that the judgment was 'fundamentally flawed'.
"Growing political uncertainties due to recent events within the Supreme Court and increased likelihood for unfavorable outcomes for business involved in class action suits have changed Dow's risk assessment of the situation," Dow Chemical wrote.
The lawsuit filed against Dow alleges that the company and other makers of a urethane had conspired to fix prices between 1999 and 2004. Some defendants in the case settled with the plaintiffs, however, the lawsuit against Dow Chemical went to a jury trial.
Dow Chemical and DuPont Co. agreed to a merger of equals back in December. According to current trading, the two companies have a combined market valued of more than $106 billion.
