California gasoline spot market
Hausfeld is court-appointed Co-Lead Counsel in this class action alleging that multinational gasoline firms manipulated California’s gas prices by taking advantage of a market disruption – a February 2015 explosion at a gasoline refinery in Torrance, California – to engage in a scheme to drive up gasoline prices for their own profit. The Defendants are Vitol, Inc. (Vitol) and SK Energy Americas, Inc., along with its parent company SK Trading International (SKTI).
Plaintiffs allege that these Defendants violated California’s antitrust laws and engaged in unlawful, unfair, and fraudulent practices that raised the price of gasoline in the state for consumers and businesses. The suit follows an action brought by California’s Attorney General in San Francisco Superior Court.
The court has ordered that discovery be taken relating to a jurisdictional motion to dismiss filed by SKTI. All defendants also filed a motion to dismiss on the merits, which has been briefed and argued and is under submission. A similar motion directed to the California Attorney General's complaint was recently denied.
The litigation is before Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley in the Northern District of California.