Daily Research News Online no. 2346 - Key Rulings for IRI in Antitrust Case

Key Rulings for IRI in Antitrust Case

May 9 2003

Last week the US District Court for the Southern District of New York issued two key rulings for Information Resources, Inc. in its $350 million-plus antitrust lawsuit against Dun & Bradstreet, ACNielsen and IMS International.

In one ruling, the court denied ACNielsen's motion for partial summary judgment to dismiss IRI's claim that ACNielsen's anticompetitive conduct had excluded IRI from 22 foreign markets. As a result, IRI will be able to seek damages at trial for its exclusion from all of these markets.

In the second ruling, the court made clear that IRI could claim damages for injuries it suffered in the U.S. market as a result of defendants' anticompetitive practices overseas. In its suit, IRI contends ACNielsen purposefully engaged in these practices to drain IRI of resources it needed to compete in the U.S. retail tracking market. In separate proceedings, the Canadian Competition Tribunal and the European Commission found that these overseas practices by ACNielsen were abusive and either prevented IRI from entering markets or artificially raised the costs of doing so.

According to IRI chairman Joe Durrett, 'These rulings are a very significant victory for IRI. We now will be able to present the jury with a complete picture of the lengths to which ACNielsen went in its attempts to exclude IRI from international markets and to monopolize the retail tracking business in the U.S.'

Durrett went on to say, 'This is a complex case, and it has taken a significant amount of time to work through the issues. We are pleased that the court ruled in IRI's favor on both of these issues. IRI's shareholders were significantly damaged by ACNielsen's anticompetitive practices, and those damages continue to this day. Our goal now is to get our day in court as soon as possible.'

The District Court has set a conference for May 21, 2003 to discuss the scheduling of a trial date.

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