Appeals Court Dismisses Elevator Antitrust Suit
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The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against the four largest international elevator companies that had accused them of conspiring to create monopolies through price fixing, bid rigging, and collusion to drive independent repair companies out of business, according to court documents.
This decision from the 2nd Circuit upholds a 2006 ruling by the U.S. District Court in Manhattan that dismissed the complaint.
The owners and managers of several residential and commercial buildings across the country and in London brought the class action lawsuit to the federal court in 2004. Plaintiffs included the owners of Co-op City, a 15,000-unit residential housing complex in the Bronx. They claimed the elevator companies attempted to monopolize the sale and repair of their products by making it difficult for independent maintenance companies to work on the elevators, according to the suit. In some instances, elevators could be repaired only by using proprietary software owned and developed by the manufacturers, according to court documents.
The defendants named are Otis Elevator Company, the world’s largest elevator and escalator company, now based in Farmington, Conn.; Kone Corporation, based in Finland and New York; Schindler Holding Ltd., based in Switzerland and New Jersey; and ThyssenKrupp AG, based in Germany and California.
The founder of Otis, Elisha Otis, invented the first safety elevator in 1853 in Yonkers, allowing the construction of high-rise buildings to extend past the limitations of stairs, according to the company’s Web site.
A lawyer for Otis, Mark Leddy, said he could not comment about future actions in the case without first speaking with his client, who was not immediately available for comment.
The elevator companies also face antitrust allegations in overseas affiliates. In January 2004, the European Union antitrust office began inspecting the four companies’ office records for price fixing and alleged that the companies were operating a cartel. In February, the European Union fined the four elevator companies $1.3 billion for rigging contracts in four European countries.
