The Paul, Weiss Antitrust Practice advises clients on a full range of global antitrust matters, including antitrust regulatory clearance, government investigations, private litigation, and counseling and compliance. The firm represents clients before antitrust and competition authorities in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions around the world.
New York Judge Dismisses SSA Price-Fixing Class Action Against Nomura
- Client News
- August 29, 2018
Practices
In a victory for client Nomura and other defendant banks, Paul, Weiss and other joint defense firms won the dismissal of a consolidated class action alleging that Nomura and other major global financial institutions conspired to manipulate prices in the multitrillion-dollar global market for supranational, sub-sovereign and agency (SSA) bonds.
The putative class action, filed in the Southern District of New York, targeted several of the largest financial institutions who act as “market makers” in the SSA market, as well as four individual traders allegedly employed by certain defendant banks. The consolidated amended complaint alleged a wide-ranging price-fixing conspiracy related to the prices of SSA bonds, which include bonds issued by governments and multilateral institutions, including the World Bank.
In its decision, the court dismissed the complaint, finding that investors did not have antitrust standing because plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege how they had been harmed by the alleged collusion. The court stated that while plaintiffs could use statistical analysis of market prices and quotes or allegations based on government enforcement actions to prove injury, investor plaintiffs in this case had failed to provide any such statistical analysis that showed that the alleged collusion in the SSA bond market yielded higher prices on their own trades.
The Paul, Weiss team included litigation partner Aidan Synnott.