Nine US cement companies accused of price fixing

{reg}The Florida federal court received a class-action lawsuit concerning nine cement companies accused of inflating prices for nine years. Star News Online reports the cement companies “conspired in a price-fixing scheme to boost the price of cement and concrete and eliminate competition in Florida.” Titan , Cemex Corp. Florida Rock Industries Inc., Holcim Inc., Lafarge North America Inc., Lehigh Cement Co., Oldcastle Materials, Suwannee American Cement LLC and Votorantim Cimentos North America Inc have all been listed in the suit.

The lawsuit goes on to specify that the companies allegedly “agreed to inflate prices by coordinating the level and timing of price increases for cement and concrete from at least January 2000 until the present.” Furthermore, the companies are accused of balancing the client lists to eliminate competition among the group. More specifically, cement companies made the exact same increase in concrete and cement prices during 2008.

In fact, according to the lawsuit, “the defendants didn't make the same discounts available to each other's customers, and each company offered discounts only to customers in specific geographic regions.....” Plaintiffs will be able to access records for every company to further prove their claims.{reg}