Morgan Stanley Wins Dismissal of Putative Antitrust Class Action Against Major Banks

On September 13, 2024, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action antitrust lawsuit brought by Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, a public pension fund for Oklahoma firefighters, against five banks and their United States affiliates, including Cravath client Morgan Stanley and co-defendants Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, HSBC and RBC.

Plaintiff alleged that the banks conspired over a five-year period to fix the bid-ask spreads of Gilts, which are government bonds issued by His Majesty's Treasury through the United Kingdom Debt Management Office. Judge John G. Koeltl granted the defendants' joint motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim and failure to plead antitrust injury. The court held that plaintiff failed both to put forth direct evidence of a price-fixing conspiracy or to allege parallel conduct among the defendants accompanied by adequate plus factors required to properly plead circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy.

The Cravath team included partners Michael A. Paskin, who argued the motion on behalf of the defendants, Damaris Hernández and Lauren M. Rosenberg and associates Melissa A. Syring and Frances C. McDonald.

The case is Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System v. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, et al., No. 1:23-cv-5095-JGK (S.D.N.Y.).