According to multiple media outlets, a judge has denied motions by several North American containerboard producers seeking to dismiss a price-fixing lawsuit filed against them in July 2025.
Defendants in the case include Cascades, Georgia-Pacific, Greif, International Paper, Packaging Corporation of America (PCA), Pratt Industries, Smurfit Kappa and WestRock.
Judge Mary M. Rowland conveyed there is enough evidence of a potential conspiracy in the plaintiff’s materials to warrant further exploration in a lawsuit. She rejected arguments that plaintiff Artuso Pastry had failed to state a sufficient claim. The ruling allows discovery in the case to move forward. Defendants have until September 29 to answer the complaint.
“Considered as a whole, Plaintiff’s allegations are sufficient to make the inference of a conspiracy plausible,” Rowland said. “Plaintiff’s well-pleaded allegations regarding six lockstep or nearly lockstep price increases are sufficient on their face to show parallel conduct.”
The defendants have argued there were “obvious, nonconspiratorial explanations” for concurrent price increases, including increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic and input cost changes. The judge didn’t feel as though the timing of these factors aligned perfectly with that of the price increases.
Rowland emphasized that weighing competing explanations for the allegations would be inappropriate at the motion-to-dismiss stage and could instead be examined as the case proceeds.
PCA and Pratt separately argued that there was insufficient evidence tying them to the alleged collusion, however Rowland found that “the Complaint contains sufficient specific allegations against Pratt and PCA to plausibly tie them to the conspiracy.”
Graphic Packaging International and Smurfit Westrock were dismissed from the case last year. The court did not provide reasons for those dismissals.
