IRI Case Dismissed

VNU has today announced that the US District Court for the Southern District of New York has dismissed with prejudice all remaining claims in the antitrust case against its ACNielsen business unit by Information Resources Inc. (IRI).

The case, originally launched on July 27 1996 and recently estimated to be worth around $650 million, accused Nielsen of unlawful bundling of services, exclusionary dealmaking and predatory pricing to beat off the challenge posed by IRI's InfoScan, following the latter's successful inroads into the US market. Specifically, IRI claimed Nielsen's relations with retailers in other countries denied it access to crucial raw scanner data, and that its competitor's offers of bundled global and pan-European contracts to multinational manufacturers gave discounts in countries where Nielsen had monopoly power, but only with the purchase of services in those countries where Nielsen competed with IRI.

IRI was bought out in 2003 by Symphony Technology and investment firm Tennenbaum (see DRNO, IRI to be Acquired, Gingko Completes Acquisition) and promised its former shareholders 60% of any gains from the litigation. However, its case was seriously undermined by a decision on December 3, when the Court issued an order ruling that the economic analysis on which it relied to establish its pricing claims was inadmissible as a matter of law, and that its expert report on liability and damages could not be presented at trial. IRI subsequently advised the Court that the pricing claims were the foundation of its case and that without the excluded evidence there was 'little left of its case to try', according to VNU's statement.

IRI said it would appeal against the ruling, seeking an expedited review by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. VNU shares rose 1.7% to 22.31 euros by 1214 GMT today, according to Reuters.

Rob van den Bergh, Chairman and CEO of VNU, expressed his satisfaction: 'ACNielsen has consistently said from the beginning of this case that IRI's claims were without merit and brought to chill competition. The Court's decision clearly demonstrates that ACNielsen acted lawfully and that the allegations made by IRI were unfounded. Competition belongs in the marketplace, and not in the courts. We are gratified that the trial Court has dismissed this case and are confident of our position on any appeal'.

VNU is online at www.vnu.com and IRI at www.infores.com

For earlier articles on this story see, in addition to the above links, Second Date Set, Key Rulings for IRI July 2003 and Court Dismisses Key Part..., July 2000.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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