Hearing held in Miss. AG Hood’s vitamin antitrust suit
BRANDON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) – A multi-motion hearing was held Friday in Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s vitamin antitrust case.
Hood first filed the case in the Rankin County Chancery Court in 2006 “on behalf of the State of Mississippi in its sovereign capacity for injuries the State has sustained as purchasers and in the State’s capacity as parens patriae.”
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation ordered the case removed to the District Court of the District of Columbia for consolidated proceedings for related actions alleging antitrust violations related to vitamins and vitamin products. Hood successfully had the case remanded back to Rankin County Chancery in 2009 before it was transferred to the Rankin County Circuit Court in 2010 where it is now being litigated.
Hood seeks to obtain damages, fees, and penalties for the State of Mississippi in this suit. A similar case, the Indirect Vitamin National Class Action, a lawsuit involving most of the same defendants, was settled for $225 million in October 2000 with more than 20 states participating. Mississippi did not participate in this case. A separate Consumer Class Action for the State of California was settled in 2002 for $80 million.
Legal News Line
11/5/12
Magnolia Tribune
