The U.S. consumers of potash fertilizers, farmers and agricultural companies, have lodged five new suits against the world biggest fertilizer producers and their traders since mid-September.
Photo: AP
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Russia’s Chemists Got New Claimants
The problems of Russia’s fertilizer producers are aggravating in the United States. Five lawsuits were added to the suit of Minn-Chem that blames the cartel collusion on them. The chance is that the action will be the collective one, i.e. not only the actual claimants but all other victims of the fertilizer collusion in the United States will be authorized for compensation.
The U.S. consumers of potash fertilizers, farmers and agricultural companies, have lodged five new suits against the world biggest fertilizer producers and their traders since mid-September. The accusation is the monopolistic collusion aimed at overpricing the product.
The first suit was filed in Minnesota by local Minn-Chem Inc. That company went to law against potash chloride producers and traders allegedly controlling 71 percent of the global market – Canadian Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan and Agrium Inc., their U.S. subsidiaries-traders, the U.S. Mosaic Company, as well as Russia’s and Belarus’ Uralkali, Silvinit, PO Belaruskali and traders – Mezhdunarodnaya Kaliinaya Co. (International Potassium Co.) and Belarus Kaliinaya Co. (Belarus Potassium Co.).
Nowadays, the claimants endeavor to turn suits into a collective action. Individuals and firms from all over United States filed five suits in addition to the North District Court of Illinois. The last suit was presented October 2; the claimant was Kraft Chemical Co. (Illinois), a big supplier of chemical and paintwork materials.
The demand of all claimants is to acknowledge the breach of the U.S. antimonopoly laws, ban such actions in future and make triple compensation for the losses to all victims. The tricky point is that, unlike the individual suit, the collective one provides for the compensation even to companies and/or individuals that haven’t joined the legal action.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 09, 2008
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