"Potash fertilizer companies were accused of collusion" and pay up!

[TOM4CWB]

"Mosaic, Agrium and Potash Corp Reach Settlement —
The Mosaic Company, Agrium and Potash Corporation
have settled a class-action lawsuit and will avoid a
trial. The potash fertilizer companies were accused of
collusion. The companies admit to no illegal activity,
but agreed to a financial settlement. Mosaic and
Potash Corp will each pay nearly $44 million. Agrium
settled for $10 million. "

"PotashCorp Reports Decreased Earnings — The global
glut of potash is affecting PotashCorp’s bottom line.
PotashCorp is reporting a 38 percent slide in earnings
on lower than expected exports and prices."

Sooo... do 'monopolies' work?

www.rrfn.com
Feb 4 2013 Red River Farm Network

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?
llr=hoyqz5bab&v=0011-
u4wRWTE7QRYI7Gv5jM3xJ47O3jOvOvzyi-9lY-
nVW_VgzuOkbd769ZMGP1FfkC9GaqK-A-
r0_aKApBJMEK3uMnWAZGf5OlPSu4ZMDguoUuOqz9IQN
HTKfEf5Sg9iB2

[Hopperbin]

Something tells me there is more to this than what we are told. So basically the big 3 cave in and plead guilty paying out 100 million dollars.
So going forward what has changed?
Who is this money actually paid to? Any info on that Tom? I could not find any info on your links so I found this leader post article.

The three major potash producers in Saskatchewan have settled eight private antitrust lawsuits in the United States.

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (PotashCorp.), Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. agreed to pay a total of $97.5 million US to end the litigation. Potash Corp. and Mosaic are paying $43.75 million US each, while Agrium is paying $10 million US. The three companies own Canpotex, which markets Saskatchewan potash globally on their behalf.

All three companies vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

“These allegations are completely without merit and we deny all of the claims asserted in the lawsuit,” said Bill Doyle, president and CEO for PotashCorp., in the news release “The reality is that we weighed the multi-year effort in time and resources that would have been required to defend this lawsuit, and determined that our management should remain focused on the production of potash and serving our customers. This settlement serves as another example of the well documented abuse of class actions in the United States where self-interested plaintiffs’ attorneys enlist nominal plaintiffs — some of whom have served in that capacity in multiple class actions — to assert meritless claims in lawsuits where neither the plaintiffs’ lawyers nor their clients have anything to lose but in which defendants face the enormous burden, distraction and expense of litigation even though we did nothing wrong. This is simply a wasteful and unnecessary cost of doing business in the United States.”

In a news release Mosaic said it “chose to settle these claims to avoid the significant costs, burden and distraction of protracted litigation,” adding it did not admit any wrongdoing and will be released from any liability in connection with the plaintiffs’ claims.

Agrium released a statement denying “all allegations of wrongdoing, liability, or damage to any of the plaintiffs or putative classes in the action, deny that they engaged in any violation of law or breach of duty, and believe they acted properly at all times.”

PotashCorp. spokesperson Bill Johnson said the expense of litigation was a major factor in the settlement.

“These are incredibly expensive lawsuits to litigate and in the interests of keeping our attention on our customers we settled this and we’ll move on from here.”

The suits were originally filed by direct and indirect purchasers of potash in the United States in U.S. federal courts in 2008 against PotashCorp., Mosaic, Agrium and four Russian and Belarusian potash companies, Uralkali, Belaruskali, Silvinit and International Potash Co. Uralkali settled last September for $12.75 million US.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago revived the antitrust case last June after overturning a previous decision in favour of the potash companies.

The plaintiffs alleged the companies co-ordinated cuts in production to keep prices rising.

The size of the payments is minor for the three big potash producers and was widely expected.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Joel Jackson noted he expected the three Canadian companies to pay only $81 million US in total.

“The market was expecting small settlements to settle the claims, and the development is not overly material, though any potential overhang around the issue has now been removed,” he wrote in a note.

On the TSX Wednesday Agrium closed at $114.01, up 66 cents; PotashCorp. was up 12 cents at $43.19; and on the NYSE Mosaic closed at 61.26, down 75 cents.



sidebar

PotashCorp. also announced it will increase the company’s quarterly cash dividend from $0.21 per share to $0.28 per share, and declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.28 US per common share payable May 2, 2013 to shareholders of record on April 11, 2013.


Read more: http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Potash companies settle antitrust lawsuits/7893740/story.html#ixzz2Jzd0eZnh

[westsider]

let's nail em

[Burbert]

IT'S IN THE USA, NOT COMEDIA. Newsflash
Comedia, nothing, butt nothing'll happen,
cousin they got the gobermont in their
hind pocket. The powers that bee in
Comedia are sooooooooo dumb they can't
pour piss outta a boot. Whatcha think, am
I write er am I write?????????? Heil
Harper

[HappyFarmer]

Maybe I am reading this wrong, but are the
basically saying "here is 97.5 million,
don't question us
again"??????????????????????

[carebear300]

So what is the difference between canpotex and the oil cartel? They basically set the price of oil. just remembered the name OPEC.

[Hopperbin]

Should this guilty plee of doing nothing wrong open us up to a nitrogen price fixing scheme by any chance???
But the bigger picture here should be is who is getting this money? Is it all going to the lawyer??? No one to recieve it that is supposed to??

[Hopperbin]

On a Class action like this??? What if there is monies left over, who gets it. Who is getting this money anyways and why is potash still higher priced in Canada than anywhere else in the world?? Anyways I am pissed that their excuse is they caved in and pleaded innocent when in fact in court they are guilty.

[Hopperbin]

Done some reading and so if the accused as they are agrees to the monies then th plaintiffs must divide it up accordingly. Sorta like pigs in a trough. LOL but OK they are guilty on the first account. Does it not open the door to more legal issues? I don't thing they should have folded so easily there is a lot more at stake.

[Hopperbin]

Exactly where is this 95 million going???? What has changed? who got the money? Is this going to repeat next year? Who the **** pays for that?

[chuckChuck]

Why is no one asking for for better competition laws in Canada? All I am hearing on this thread is worry about the piddling little bit of money they settled for. A lot of people seem not to be able to see the big picture when it is staring them right in the face! A few large market players in some industries will conspire and collude whenever they think they can get away with it. The only way to prevent it is to have strong enforceable laws against anti-competitive behaviour.

[Burbert]

Well tommie, answer sommathe quvestions
fer us poor peons, er are we just chopped
liver. Is you a phoney cut and paster er
da ya know what the h is actually goin on?
Er are ya attemptin ta baffle them with BS
as usual? Er are ya consultin wit the
gobermont ta tell'm whats best fer
Comedian framers? Ifn ya don't no, why
not ask genious Ritz, whats goin on. Heil
Harper