Morgan Stanley Wins Decision Affirming Dismissal of Antitrust Suit Against Major Banks

On Friday, March 24, a three‑judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of Cravath client Morgan Stanley, banks Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and UBS, and EquiLend, a provider of electronic stock lending services.

The decision affirms that of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. There, Plaintiff‑Appellant SL‑x had claimed that its trading platform was set to modernize the stock loan industry until Defendants enacted a boycott that led to the dissolution of SL‑x and the purchase of its intellectual property by EquiLend. On September 30, 2021, Judge Richard A. Sullivan dismissed SL‑x’s allegations, holding that SL‑x’s claims were time‑barred and that it lacked Article III standing because the subsidiaries that owned the IP and operated the platform were not in existence at the time that the Complaint was filed.

On appeal, SL‑x argued that the lower court’s opinion was erroneous, asserting that the claims were timely and that both the Parent and Subsidiary companies had Article III standing to bring the claims at issue. The Second Circuit’s ruling, however, affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the consolidated antitrust suits and denied SL‑x an opportunity to amend its Complaint and therefore bring these claims against the Defendants at any time in the future.

The Cravath team included partners Daniel Slifkin, Michael A. Paskin and Lauren M. Rosenberg, who argued the appeal on behalf of the defendants, and associate Matthew A. Robinson.

The case is SL-x IP S.A.R.L., et al. v. Bank of America Corp., et al., Nos. 21-2697 (L), 21-2699 (Con).