SAN FRANCISCO — Ruling for the first time on an alleged “hub-and-spoke” antitrust conspiracy, the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday found plaintiffs who bought guitars from Guitar Center failed to show the company and its suppliers conspired to fix prices.
Plaintiffs claimed that manufacturers, including Fender Musical Instruments Corp. and Gibson Guitar Corp., drove up prices by agreeing to apply pricing restrictions set by Guitar Center. But plaintiffs weren’t able to make the necessary leap to show those agreements were the result of an illegal conspiracy among the manufacturers, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Ruling 2-1, the panel found the defendants’ actions could just as easily be explained as a rational response to the free market.
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