Pool Water Products v. Olin Corp.

OVERVIEW

Plaintiffs-appellants Aqua Tri and Pool Water Products (“plaintiffs”) allege that defendants-appellees Olin and Superior Pool Products (“defendants”) have engaged in a “whole host” of anticompetitive activities, including the illegal acquisition of a fellow dry chemical manufacturer, FMC. That acquisition was deemed illegal by the Federal Trade Commission in a separate proceeding. In a series of pretrial motions, plaintiffs asked the district court to give the FTC decision prima facie weight in this proceeding under Section 5 of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 16 (a). Defendants moved to exclude plaintiffs’ expert from testifying and to dismiss the case because plaintiffs lacked antitrust standing. The district court denied plaintiffs’ motion and granted the defendants’ motions. We affirm and hold that plaintiffs failed to meet Section 5’s requirements for giving the FTC decision prima facie weight and failed to establish that they suffered any antitrust injury.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This dispute arises among four companies engaged in the manufacturing, repackaging and distributing of two chlorine-based dry swimming pool sanitizers, calcium hypochlorite…