20,000 join Amcor-Visy cartel class action

No fewer than 20,000 clients of Amcor and Visy have joined a class action against the two packaging companies over their price-fixing arrangements in the Australian market, which ran from 2000 to 2004.

Amcor has never publicly admitted to the cartel but blew the whistle on the arrangements, gaining immunity from prosecution by Australian competition authorities. Visy, however, was subsequently fined AUS$36m, the largest fine for anti-competitive practices in Australian legal history.

However, clients are now pursuing the companies for damages. Last week, Amcor settled out of court with Cadbury’s for an undisclosed sum after the confectionary giant had planned to sue it for AUS$236m (£116m).

According to local press reports, lawyers for Amcor argued at a hearing in Australia’s Federal Court on Thursday (13 August) that it remained to be proved whether any cartel agreement was ever put into effect, whether any customers suffered loss or simply passed the higher prices on to consumers and whether the customers could claim damages without a painstaking exercise of producing evidence of individual price negotiations.

The Age reported that Amcor barrister Matthew Darke told the court: “Loss must be assessed on a group-member by group-member basis.”

Justice Peter Jacobson responded: “Do you expect me to hear 20,000 cases before I retire? One case is going to have to resolve a lot of the issues … or maybe one case with a few classes and a sample from each class.”

Tony Bannon, the barrister leading the class action, argued that the Australian federal class action rules would allow the court to determine a global sum of compensation which the members of the class action can then divide among themselves, the newspaper reported.

Bannon also told the court he was prepared to call all 111 people who gave statements to the Australian competition commission for its case against Visy.

However, Justice Jacobson warned that if Amcor and Visy did not admit to the cartel, it would be expensive for the customers to prove that it actually happened. He warned Amcor and Visy that ”there will be cost consequences if, at the end of the day, it appears that it was unnecessary to spend that money”.

The case comes as Amcor is thought to be on the verge of announcing the acquisition for around US$2.8bn of a large chunck of Alcan Packaging from Rio Tinto.