BURLINGTON, Vt. -- A price-fixing lawsuit against four gasoline distributors in Vermont is moving forward.
The lawsuit charges that four Vermont fuel wholesalers illegally profited by more than $100 million over a decade by “conspiring to fix the price of gas at artificially high levels.” According to the suit, distributors R.L. Vallee Inc. and SB Collins Inc., both of St. Albans, Vt., and South Burlington, Vt.-based Champlain Farms/Wesco Inc. and Champlain Inc. (Champlain Oil), matched up their wholesale fuel prices. This pushed up retail fuel prices at the distributors’ own stations and those they supplied in Chittenden and nearby Vermont counties, the lawsuit says.
Last fall, the four distributors filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the plaintiffs—law firms Bailey Glasser LLP of Washington, D.C., and The Burlington Law Practice PLLC—failed to provide any evidence supporting price fixing. But early this week, Vermont Superior Court Judge Helen Toor rejected the motion on grounds that there is enough evidence of a conspiracy for the case to move forward, according to local news station WCAX. This is despite the fact that the plaintiffs do not have direct evidence of communication or meetings between the companies.
In a statement, Tris Coffin, a lawyer representing the fuel distributors, said: “Plaintiffs recanted the most serious and significant allegations made against four Vermont family businesses, conceding at oral argument they had no basis for making the allegations. In granting our motion to strike those allegations, the court recognized this fact. The rest of the complaint is also without merit and we will continue to fight this baseless lawsuit.”
The law firms had filed the suit on behalf of “all citizens and businesses of the state of Vermont who purchased unleaded gasoline from June 1, 2005, to the present, either from any gasoline station owned by the defendants in the class area or from any gasoline station the defendants supplied at wholesale in the class area.” It seeks restitution, compensatory and punitive damages of an unspecified amount, and asks for treble damages as allowed under the law.
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