In re Southeastern Milk Antitrust Litigation

• Decision Date: 20 May 2008
• Docket Number: MDL No. 1899.,Master File No. 2:08-MD-1000.
• Citation: 555 F.Supp.2d 934
• Parties: In re SOUTHEASTERN MILK ANTITRUST LITIGATION. This Document Relates to: All Cases (Except Breto v. Dean Foods, No. 2:07-CV-188).
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

555 F.Supp.2d 934

In re SOUTHEASTERN MILK ANTITRUST LITIGATION This Document Relates to: All Cases (Except Breto v. Dean Foods, No. 2:07-CV-188).

MDL No. 1899.

Master File No. 2:08-MD-1000.

United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee, Greeneville Division.

May 20, 2008.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

MEMORANDUM OPINION

J. RONNIE GREER, District Judge.

The instant matter consists of two actions transferred to this Court by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation for coordinated pretrial proceedings with five other actions filed in this district. Pending before the Court is defendants' Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) in the Baisley, Sweetwater and Scott cases. Defendants now rely on the motions to dismiss in all cases except Breto and the plaintiffs in all cases except Breto have agreed to be bound by the motion to dismiss briefing previously filed by the plaintiffs in Baisley, Sweetwater and Scott. The motions have been fully briefed and are now ripe for disposition. Pursuant to the Court's local rules, the motion will be decided without oral argument.

I. Background

All plaintiffs are present or former dairy farmers in the Southeastern United States who raise cows and produce milk. Defendants are entities and/or individuals involved in either the marketing and sale of milk on behalf of dairy farmers or the purchase and processing of that milk. Plaintiffs have filed this action both on behalf of themselves and as a class action on behalf of various classes of current or former dairy farmers, alleging violations of §§ 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1 and 2). They seek treble damages and injunctive relief for an alleged "combination and conspiracy among Defendants to refuse to compete for the purchase of raw Grade A milk (`Grade A milk') produced, marketed and processed in the Southeast United States with the purpose and effect of fixing, stabilizing, and maintaining prices paid to dairy farmers for Grade A milk, foreclosing independent dairy farmers' and independent cooperative members' access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants, eliminating and stifling competition from independent dairy cooperatives and independent fluid Grade A milk bottlers, and other unlawful activities designed to artificially and anti-competitively reduce the price paid by Defendants for Grade A milk ..." See Sweetwater complaint, ¶ 1. The complaints contain five antitrust counts: (1) conspiracy to monopolize and monopsonize in violation of § 2 of the Sherman Act; (2) attempt to monopolize and monopsonize in violation of § 2 of the Sherman Act; (3) unlawful monopolization in violation of § 2 of the Sherman Act; (4) unlawful monopsony in violation of § 2 of the Sherman Act; and (5) unlawful conspiracy among defendants to foreclose competition and fix prices in violation of § 1 of the Sherman Act.

For the purpose of its ruling on these Rule 12(b)(6) motions, the Court accepts as true the facts alleged in the complaint. Defendants have "conspir[ed] to operate an unlawful cartel that refuses to compete for the purchase of Grade A milk, forecloses access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants and processors, and fixes prices for Grade A milk paid to Southeast dairy farmers." Together with certain co-conspirators who are not sued in these actions, defendants have carried out their conspiracy through a series of "unlawful" acts, including implementing long-term full-supply agreements between defendant Dean Foods Company ("Dean"), National Dairy Holdings, L.P. ("NDH") and Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., ("DFA") in order to control access of Southeast dairy farmers to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants; requiring independent dairy farmers, individuals and entities that were previously free of DFA's control to market their milk through DFA-controlled marketing entities such as Dairy Marketing Services, Inc. ("DMS") in order to gain access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants; requiring dairy farmer members of the Maryland and Virginia Producers Cooperative Association, Inc. ("Maryland and Virgina Co-op"), a cooperative that was previously independent of DFA, to market their Grade A milk through DFA-controlled Southern Marketing Agency, Inc. ("SMA") to gain access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants; threatening to cut off and cutting off independent cooperatives' and independent dairy farmers' access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants; boycotting independent dairy farmers, cooperatives, and fluid Grade A milk bottlers; fixing, depressing and/or stabilizing prices for Grade A milk paid to Southeast dairy farmers; "flooding" the Southeast milk market to further depress prices for Grade A milk paid to Southeast dairy farmers; utilizing DMS and SMA to monitor prices for Grade A milk paid to independent dairy farmers and independent cooperative members; "punishing" independent cooperatives and fluid Grade A milk bottlers that do not comply with defendants' conspiracy in an effort to eliminate or control these entities as competitive outlets for Southeast dairy, farmers' Grade A milk; and purchasing fluid Grade A milk bottling plants with the purpose and intent of further stifling competition from independent dairy farmers, cooperatives, and fluid Grade A milk bottlers. Defendant Dean owns at least 17 fluid Grade A bottling plants in the Southeast and is the largest fluid Grade A milk bottler in the Southeast.¹ Defendant DFA is the third largest fluid Grade A milk bottler in the Southeast and fully or partially owns at least eight Grade A milk bottling plants. NDH owns at least nine fluid Grade A milk bottling plants in the Southeast and is the second largest fluid Grade A milk bottler in the Southeast. DFA owns one-half of NDH. The various individual defendants are managers and officers of SMA or DFA.

DFA is a cooperative that controls ninety percent of the Grade A milk produced in the Southeast. DFA owns and operates its own hauling companies, processing plants and distribution centers that are necessary to deliver Grade A milk from farmer producers to grocery stores. Defendant DMS is a marketing agency which performs milk marketing services for milk processors. With a few exceptions, independent dairy farmers are not permitted to sell Grade A milk directly to Dean and Dean forces farmers to market their Grade A milk through DMS. Defendant SMA is a marketing agency which markets milk on behalf of its member dairy cooperatives, including DFA. Dairy cooperatives that have previously acted independently of each other have been required to join SMA to market their Grade A milk. DFA is the controlling member of SMA.

Dean controls 60 percent of the fluid Grade A milk bottling capacity in the Southeast. The defendants collectively own at least 33 of the approximately 51 Grade A milk bottling plants currently operating in the Southeast, representing 77 percent of the fluid Grade A milk bottling capacity in the Southeast. DFA, through full supply agreements discussed below, controls access to these 33 plants and, because of full supply agreements with other milk bottlers and supermarkets, controls access to at least 41 of the 51 Grade A milk bottling plants in the Southeast. Through its full supply agreements and its control of SMA or DMS, DFA controls 90 percent of the Grade A milk produced in the Southeast and more than 80 percent of the Grade A milk processed by fluid Grade A milk bottlers in the Southeast. Dean, DFA and NDH also control most of the balancing plants in the Southeast, plants which hold Grade A milk produced during weekends and holidays when fluid Grade A milk bottling plants are generally closed.

Central to the alleged conspiracy of defendants are certain full supply agreements between certain bottlers, including Dean and NDH, and DFA in which DFA agreed to supply all of the fluid Grade A milk needed by those bottlers' plants, despite the fact that DFA did not have the production of milk necessary to satisfy the agreements. These agreements were structured to avoid the prohibition of a Department of Justice consent decree² against full supply agreements in excess of one year. DFA's full supply agreements consist of a series of 20 successive one year agreements. As an incentive to guarantee the extension of these agreements beyond one year, DFA agreed to forgive $40 million in notes executed by Dean, provided Dean renews each of the 20 one year agreements. Dean further agreed to pay DFA $47 million in liquidated damages if Dean fails to renew any of the 20 one year agreements.

Defendants have used these full supply agreements to force independent dairy cooperatives needed to fulfill the agreements to join DFA, or to market their Grade A milk through SMA, and to force independent dairy farmers to market their Grade A milk through DMS in order to have access to fluid Grade A bottling plants in the Southeast. As part of the alleged conspiracy, Dean and DFA informed Maryland and Virginia Co-op that Dean would no longer accept Grade A milk from Co-op members unless the Maryland and Virginia Co-op agreed to join SMA. Maryland and Virginia Co-op joined SMA because it had no other choice. DFA, of course, controls SMA. Similar demands were made of other small dairy cooperatives operating in the Southeast. Access to bottling plants is essential to dairy cooperatives and diary farmers because it is their only means to qualify to participate in the United States Department of Agriculture's ("USDA") Federal Milk Market Orders ("FMMO"), receive FMMO minimum blend prices and to be eligible for over order premiums for Class 1 sales of Grade A milk.³

Because of "threats" made to other small dairy farmer cooperatives operating in the" Southeast, all joined SMA to gain access to fluid Grade A milk bottling plants in the Southeast. Because DFA controls access to the market, DFA members have no choice but to pay inappropriate fees and charges for the services performed by SMA. DFA has utilized its control of SMA...