PVC Pipes Price-Fixing Litigation

CASE BACKGROUND 

This case involves the price fixing of PVC municipal water pipes manufactured, produced, or distributed by defendants in violation of the Sherman and Clayton Acts and the antitrust laws of several states. 

PVC is an acronym for polyvinyl chloride, a polymer of plastic. PVC municipal water pipes are commodity products that carry municipal water supply from reservoirs, lakes, or rivers to treatment facilities, and from there to water mains that distribute water throughout a community. PVC pipes are also used in stormwater, sewage, and wastewater collection systems. Defendants control approximately 90% of the U.S. wholesale market for PVC municipal water pipes. The U.S. PVC pipe market was approximately $3.3 billion in 2022.  

Plaintiff Northern Moraine Wastewater Reclamation District alleges defendants, PVC pipe manufacturers, conspired to fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the price of PVC municipal water pipes in the United States from January 1, 2021, to the present. Defendants did so by communicating through a co-conspirator, an information-exchange firm called OPIS. OPIS enabled defendants to discuss and agree on their pricing activities and to gain access to standardized pricing data from their competitors to enforce their agreements, all to extract monopoly profits from their customers by fixing and maintaining PVC pipe prices. Defendants’ anticompetitive actions artificially inflated the price of PVC pipes, damaging plaintiff and the class of indirect purchasers of PVC municipal water pipes..

CASE FILED

On June 16, 2025, the Joseph Saveri Law Firm and co-counsel filed a complaint on behalf of Plaintiff Northern Moraine Wastewater Reclamation District (an Island Lake, Illinois independent municipal corporation) and a proposed class against defendants Atkore, Inc.; Diamond Plastics Corporation; Ipex USA LLC; JM Eagle, Inc.; National Pipe & Plastics, Inc.; Otter Tail Corporation; Westlake Corporation, and co-conspirator OPIS. The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, alleges a conspiracy by the defendants to fix prices and overcharge plaintiff and the class for PVC municipal water pipes. Plaintiff seeks injunctive relief under Sections 1 and 3 of the Sherman Act and treble damages under the antitrust and consumer protection laws of several states. A jury trial is demanded. 

CONTACT US 

If you wish to inform us of any unfair business practice, antitrust or competition issue, or comment on one of our cases, please use the form below. There is no cost or obligation for our review of your case. We agree to protect your name and all confidential information you submit against disclosure, publication, or unauthorized use to the full extent under the law. Please note that completion of this form does not contractually obligate our firm to represent you. We can only represent you if both you and our firm agree, in writing, that we will serve as your attorney. Please read our disclaimer.