Nomura International Wins Dismissal with Prejudice of Consolidated Antitrust Class Action Suit

On September 30, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed, with prejudice, a consolidated class action complaint alleging a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act as to Cravath client Nomura International plc (“Nomura”) and several other defendants (together with Nomura, “Defendants”) for lack of personal jurisdiction. Plaintiffs Iron Workers Pension Plan of Western Pennsylvania, Alaska Department of Revenue and Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation—seeking to represent a putative class of purchasers of U.S. dollar‑denominated supranational, sovereign and agency (“USD SSA”) bonds between January 2009 and December 2015—alleged that Defendants conspired to restrain trade and fix prices of USD SSA bonds through anticompetitive activities. This decision concluded the second round of briefing in the matter.

In August 2018, Judge Ramos had dismissed Plaintiffs’ first amended complaint based on a failure plausibly to allege antitrust injury and granted leave to Plaintiffs to file a second amended complaint to cure the deficiencies as to antitrust standing. Read more about the first round of briefing here.

The Cravath team included associates Allison N. Kempf, Allison S. Eisen and Courtney A. Gans. The case is In Re SSA Bonds Antitrust Litigation, No. 16-cv-3711, 2019 WL 4917608 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 4, 2019).