Inter-County Title Co. v. Data Trace Information Services, LLC

MEMORANDUM **

Inter-County Title Company appeals summary judgment against its antitrust suit, which centered around access to the Back Plant, a database that reorganizes publicly available property information more efficiently. Inter-County argued that the plant owners’ price for access is too high, violating the prohibition against unreasonable restraints of trade in 15 U.S.C. § 1 and the prohibition against monopolization or attempted monopolization in 15 U.S.C. § 2 . Inter-County also claimed the Back Plant is an essential facility.

We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the appellees. Facts are referenced only as necessary to explain the decision.

I

Although Inter-County established the first element of its Section 1 claim by showing an agreement between the defendants, Inter-County failed to raise a triable question on whether the agreement was unreasonable. The Supreme Court has long read 15 U.S.C. § 1 to prohibit only unreasonable restraints of trade. Bus. Electronics Corp. v. Sharp Electron ics Corp., 485 U.S. 717, 723 , 108 S.Ct. 1515 , 99 L.Ed.2d 808 (1988).

A

To show the threshold requirement of an agreement or other concerted action,…