Stanislaus Food Products Co. v. Uss-Posco Industries

This appeal, which centers on tin mill products used to make the tin cans commonly used to package food, teaches that there’s no substitute for concrete evidence. Stanislaus Food Products Company claims that it pays artificially high prices as the result of an illegal market allocation agreement among the nation’s leading tin manufacturers who agreed to cede the tin mill products market in the western United States to a single company, USS-POSCO Industries (“UPI”).

Although echoes of price-fixing permeate the appeal, only a market allocation theory is at issue. But the market-allocation claim relies on a shaky economic theory, as the purported arrangement would not be rational in light of the circumstances. Even after extensive discovery, the evidence does not tend to exclude the possibility that the alleged conspirators were acting independently. We conclude that Stanislaus has failed to establish specific facts supporting a market allocation conspiracy and affirm summary judgment for the tin manufacturers.

Background

Stanislaus, a tomato cannery located in Modesto, California, purchases its tin cans exclusively from Silgan, one of three major American tin can…