Nomura International Wins Appeal Affirming Dismissal of Putative Antitrust Class Action

On July 19, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a second consolidated amended class action complaint alleging a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act as to Cravath client Nomura International plc and several other defendants.

Plaintiffs Iron Workers Pension Plan of Western Pennsylvania, Alaska Department of Revenue and Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation—seeking to represent a putative class of purchasers of U.S. dollar‑denominated supranational, sovereign and agency (“USD SSA”) bonds between January 2009 and December 2015—alleged that defendants conspired to restrain trade and fix prices of USD SSA bonds through various anticompetitive activities. The Second Circuit found that plaintiffs failed to state a claim for relief, having “cast a net so wide that the claimed antitrust conspiracy is implausible as alleged.”

The Second Circuit’s dismissal concludes several rounds of previous briefing before the district court. In August 2018, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed plaintiffs’ first amended complaint based on a failure to plausibly allege antitrust injury and granted leave to plaintiffs to file a second amended complaint to cure the deficiencies as to antitrust standing. In September 2019, Judge Ramos dismissed, with prejudice, the second consolidated amended class action complaint as to Nomura International and several other defendants for lack of personal jurisdiction. In March 2020, Judge Ramos dismissed, with prejudice, plaintiffs’ second consolidated amended class action complaint for failure to state a claim.

The Cravath team included partner John D. Buretta, practice area attorney Alexander S. del Nido, and associates Michael Ardeljan, Allison N. Kempf and Aishlinn R. Bottini. Jingxi Zhai also worked on the matter. The case is Alaska Dep’t of Revenue, Treasury Div. v. Manku, No. 20‑1759‑CV, 2021 WL 3027170 (2d Cir. July 19, 2021).