Based upon the allegations to date (no regulatory investigations have been completed) and the class action antitrust cases filed, the article highlights some of the issues that the plaintiffs will need to prove:
- that there has been anti-competitive collusion and that it rises to the level of antitrust behavior under the Sherman Act
- although there are differences from the LIBOR case, those antitrust claims were dismissed by a New York federal judge
- certifying a class when on any given day any alleged manipulation may help or hurt a particular plaintiff, depending upon the direction of the manipulation and the plaintiff's position.
Reuters
These are valid points relating to the potential difficulty of these antitrust suits. From the banks' perspective, at least as important will be the result of the regulators' investigations. Should these show manipulation to have occurred, even if problems are found with these suits, a subsequent set of lawsuits could reasonably be expected. Thus, regardless of the outcome of these suits, the banks may not be able to remove themselves very easily from another set of legal troubles in the event that the ongoing investigations find misconduct.
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