US judge rejects class action over Energizer, Walmart battery prices

By Mike Scarcella

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A federal judge has refused to grant class action status to consumer and wholesale purchaser lawsuits alleging Energizer ENR.N and retail giant Walmart WMT.O conspired to keep disposable battery prices artificially high.

US District Judge P. Casey Pitts in San Jose said in a ruling on Monday that three groups of buyers must pursue their claims individually because they had not shown key legal and factual issues were common across the proposed classes.

The lawsuits filed in 2023 alleged Energizer, facing pressure from Walmart, agreed to raise the wholesale prices it charged to other direct-purchase customers in order to allow Walmart to offer lower retail prices.

The ruling is a blow for now to the lawyers who had urged the court to certify classes totaling many millions of purchasers. Companies can face added pressures to settle certified class actions, since they can allow for higher recoveries than when individuals sue on their own.

Energizer and Walmart declined to comment. They have denied any wrongdoing, saying there was no unlawful agreement to suppress competition and fix battery prices.

Lead attorneys for the plaintiff groups did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In their lawsuits, the plaintiffs' lawyers said Walmart was Energizer's largest customer and that the two companies entered a business arrangement so that “both companies could charge higher-than-competitive prices" for Energizer products.

In his ruling, Pitts faulted two experts for the plaintiffs, saying that their pricing models “cannot establish antitrust impact on classwide basis.”

Pitts declined to bar the plaintiffs from relying on the two experts, saying that the ruling does not conclude “that the experts’ analyses could never bear fruit.”

He allowed the buyers to refile their request for class certification supported by different evidence.

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(Reporting by Mike Scarcella)