Opinion ID: 2998640
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Per Se Unreasonable Restraint of Trade

Text: Because General Drilling could not establish an antitrust injury outright, it relied at argument before the district court on the presumption of injury that arises from a per se unreasonable restraint of trade. This Court has held that antitrust remedies may be available without a showing of market injury if an individual competitor can show that the defendant’s anticompetitive actions were per se illegal under Section 1. Wigod, 981 F.2d at 1515. Per se violations are actions where the nature and necessary effects that result are so plainly anticompetitive that an in-depth analysis of their illegality is unnecessary. Id. General Drilling claims that “conspiracies to eliminate a low price competitor to suppress price competition are per se unreasonable restraints of trade.” A Sherman Act combination “formed for the purpose and with the effect of raising, depressing, fixing, pegging, or stabilizing the price” in the marketplace is illegal per se. United States v. SoconyVacuum Oil Co., 310 U.S. 150, 223 (1940). To establish a per se price-fixing conspiracy, a plaintiff must produce evidence “that a combination was formed for the purpose of fixing prices and that it caused them to be fixed or contributed to that result. . . .” Id. at 224. General Drilling predicates its price-fixing conspiracy claim on Troglio’s statements to General Drilling officials at the 1996 and 2002 meetings. For instance, Keil testified that Troglio spoke at the 1996 meeting of “complaints . . . from the Union drillers.” According to Diehr, “there were contract drillers up there that were not happy with General Drilling being in their area.” Finally, Boatman testified that Ludwig in particular “was the one that put pressure at various times and tried to come down and get that business.” Boatman could not testify to any specific conversations between Troglio and union drillers about General Drilling. No. 05-1389 13 The 2002 taped conversations also provide some indication of pressure from the Chicago union drillers. On those tapes, Troglio is heard saying, “I have to get this repaired. It is an issue. An issue to the other guys and I gotta get this done.” When asked who it was an issue to, Troglio replied, “Well, I’m not going to mention names but you have got a lot of competition. . . .” Although he would not specify, he intimated that the other parties were General Drilling’s “signed competition.” When asked in the deposition what names he had refused to mention, Troglio replied, “None.” At other times on the tapes, Troglio says, “Bill, I, we were to the point that I have to do something about you” and “politically, you know, I’ve got to do it.” General Drilling, then, presented some evidence of a conspiracy. The evidence fails, however, to show that the conspiracy was “formed for the purpose and with the effect of” price-fixing, which is necessary to establish a per se claim of price-fixing conspiracy. On tape, Troglio voices the concerns that he shared with the Chicago union drillers: KT: What I am talking about, Bill, is your competi- tion. Be it Ludwig. Be it Raimonde. Be it Lam- berts. Uh. Be it Calahan and Shue [sic]. Your competition within our jurisdiction pays a rate. That’s all I care about. That you’re on the same playing field as those people within our jurisdiction. . . . Troglio and the Chicago union drillers, then, focused not on the price paid by Material Service for the services General Drilling provided, but on the amount of wages and benefits General Drilling paid to their employees. There is no evidence that Troglio ever discussed pricing with any of the Chicago union drillers or with General Drilling. As discussed below in reference to the section 303 claims, Troglio played no role in formulating Material Service’s decision to terminate General Drilling or its choice of a driller to replace General Drilling. Undisputed record evidence 14 No. 05-1389 reveals that Material Service paid the same price to Finn Drill as it did to General Drilling for the drilling services—the price remained at $1.75 per foot. Any evidence of price-fixing was insufficient to survive summary judgment. General Drilling’s reliance on Denny’s Marina, Inc. v. Renfro Prods., Inc., 8 F.3d 1217 (7th Cir. 1993), to support its price-fixing claim is misplaced. In Denny’s Marina, this Court held that the defendants’ actions constituted a per se violation of the Sherman Act because the conspiracy was both horizontal and formed for the purpose of fixing prices. The Court found that a group of boat dealers in the central Indiana market took concerted action to protect themselves from price competition by the discounter, Denny’s. When participating in industry boat shows, Denny’s had a policy to “meet or beat” its competitors’ prices. As a result, its competitors complained and succeeded in preventing Denny’s from participating in the boat show. In contrast, General Drilling presented no evidence to indicate that it was prevented from participating in the northwest Indiana market. Instead, General Drilling continues to solicit business and to work for Vulcan and Northern Indiana in the market. General Drilling was not even prevented from working for Material Service, who asked General Drilling to work at its quarries again twice in 2003. Because General Drilling neither presented evidence from which a reasonable jury could find that it had antitrust standing nor demonstrated a per se violation of the Sherman Act, defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law. The district court’s grant of summary judgment on this issue was proper.