Plaintiffs were handed a major win on Monday, November 27, 2023, as the court denied Defendant John Deere’s motions to dismiss in the case of Deere & Company Repair Services Antitrust Litigation.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Iain D. Johnston of the Northern District of Illinois held that Plaintiffs’ antitrust claims should proceed and met all the necessary requirements for each count in the complaint.
“In its motion for judgment on the pleadings, Deere argues that Plaintiffs lack Article III standing and antitrust standing. Deere also contends that Plaintiffs fail to plausibly allege relevant markets and that every single count in the Complaint is defective.
… As discussed in the following 80 pages, the Court finds that Plaintiffs possess Article III standing, that Illinois Brick’s direct-purchaser rule doesn’t bar Plaintiffs’ claims, and that Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged the relevant markets. As to the Complaint’s individual counts, the Court finds that they all survive the motion.”
Defendant John Deere had previously filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming the proposed suit contained “fundamental legal defects.” Among these, Deere cited Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, claiming that since Plaintiffs purchased equipment from distributors rather than Deere directly, they lacked antitrust standing to recover damages.
In his opinion, Judge Johnston rebuked this claim:
“Paradigmatically, this case is distinguishable from Illinois Brick in that there is no middleman… Rather, it falls more in line with McCready, Loeb, and In re Disposable Contact Lens Antitrust.
WBE and co-counsel filed this case, Deere & Company Repair Services Antitrust Litigation (Case number 3:22-cv-50188) in the Northern District of Illinois. To read Judge Johnston’s order in full, click here.