PVC price-fixing case eclipses $415 million in settlements

In July 2024, an anonymous investor going by the name “ManBearChicken” published a report outlining suspicions that PVC pipe manufacturers were fixing prices by coordinating pricing actions through a now-defunct publication called PVC & Pipe Weekly.

• He pointed to quotes from the publication, including one stating that manufacturers “conceded they need to figure out how to push prices higher. The consensus this week was for a single price increase that would take prices up by about 5%…” 
• ManBearChicken disclosed that he was an asset manager holding short positions and stood to profit if the manufacturers’ stock prices fell. 
• His name — “ManBear” to friends — seemingly referenced both a South Park character (ManBearPig) and a prior report he’d written about the chicken industry, which sparked a Justice Department investigation and inspired an episode of HBO hit show Billions.

Catch up quick: A slate of class-action lawsuits was subsequently filed against roughly a dozen PVC pipe manufacturers and their subsidiaries.

• Plaintiffs were grouped into three “classes” based on whether they’d bought products directly from the manufacturers, indirectly from distributors or big box stores (like most contractors), or were end users such as municipal water systems. 
• They argued that prices for PVC pipe had exploded amid the COVID-19 pandemic and remained high even as input costs for PVC resin normalized, and that thousands of handwritten notes, text messages, and emails among manufacturers and an employee at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS) — which published PVC & Pipe Weekly — supported their case. 
• “Plumbing pipe prices rose roughly 200% during 2021,” one of the lawsuits states. Eventually, “PVC Pipe System prices quadrupled, generating windfall profits while devastating pipe purchasers nationwide.” 

What’s happening: OPIS, owned by News Corp, last year settled for $6 million and agreed to cooperate with plaintiffs. 

• Last week, on Sept. 16, a judge approved settlements by manufacturers Atkore and Otter Tail subsidiaries Northern Pipe Products and Vinyltech. 
• Arkansas-based Pipelife Jet Stream has also settled, while Westlake, another pipe manufacturer, has settled some of the claims. 
• The settlements have now topped $415 million — and the case is far from closed.

The intrigue: Court filings indicate that the Department of Justice has separately launched its own criminal antitrust investigation. 

• Several of the deals reached so far contain cooperation provisions that could require settling companies to help the plaintiffs.

The other side: The settling defendants have not admitted wrongdoing. Some have said they chose to settle because of uncertainty and litigation costs. 

• Defendants who have so far not settled include Cantex Diamond Plastics, Prime Conduit, Sanderson Pipe, Southern Pipe, J-M Manufacturing / JM Eagle, Charlotte Pipe & Foundry, IPEX USA, Cresline Plastic Pipe, and National Pipe & Plastics.

Looking ahead: Anyone who bought pipe and hopes to recover alleged overcharges can register at the above-linked sites to receive updates about when and how to file a claim.

• Settlement funds won’t be paid out until the court approves a distribution process.

Of note: Homepros reached out to numerous attorneys involved in the case, who either declined to comment or did not respond by press time.