Long-running capacitor antitrust case concludes with final $160M settlement

Joseph Saveri Law Firm LLP announced a $160 million settlement Wednesday with the final defendants in a multiyear capacitor antitrust case.

The firm was the court-appointed sole lead counsel for the plaintiffs. "We strongly believe these groundbreaking settlements will deter this type of collusive behavior in the future, to the benefit of us all," Saveri said in a statement Wednesday.

Saveri told U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached between the class of electronic component manufacturers that were allegedly overcharged for aluminum, tantalum and film capacitors and the two remaining defendants, capacitor manufacturer Nippon Chemi-Con and its U.S. based subsidiary United Chemi-Con.

Donato had expressed concern Tuesday over the size of the settlement before it was publicly announced, saying "If the settlement looks too low, it will not be approved. $5 million is certainly not going to fly."

Saveri said in his statement Wednesday, "We are proud of the settlement reached with the two remaining defendants today during trial. This case, starting in 2014 against more than twenty capacitor manufacturer defendants, has been a hard-fought battle now featuring over $600 million in settlements with almost all defendants over its history."

This settlement marks the end of the yearslong case and is the fifth settlement to come out of it. According to the Joseph Saveri Law Firm website, capacitor manufacturers were accused of raising, fixing and stabilizing capacitor prices to deal with declining demand. The four prior settlements totaled around $440 million, and this final settlement will push the total to around $600 million, the website said. In re: Capacitors Antitrust Litigation, 3:17-md-02801-JD, (N.D. Cal.).

Fines had been levied against many of the original defendants in this case and "eight additional capacitor manufacturers and two of their individual executives have pleaded guilty and been sentenced for violating federal antitrust laws," according to the website.