Friday, May 17, 2013

Dow Chemical Hit With Triple Damages for Price Fixing Case

It's official. Dow Chemical now has to pay triple damages after being found guilty of price fixing urethane components. That means that the $400 million dollar fine that the jury established is now a whopping $1.2 BILLION dollar fine. $400 million is so small that Dow could have almost hidden that in the annual report, but with $1.2 billion, that is going to show up loud and clear.

Do you hear that sound coming from the general direction of Midland, Michigan? That's the sound of lawyers furiously banging out their briefs for the appeals court. As I said back in February, Dow must be seriously regretting not negotiating a settlement, a step that all the other accused companies took. Overturning a judgement on appeal, or even getting the fine reduced is never easy as presumption is now working against them. (Innocent until proven guilty only works in the first case. On appeal, it's the opposite).

1 comment:

Eric Yin said...

If the blindfolded lady holding the scales of justice has a sense of humor, Monsanto will have to appear in the same court—it really doesn’t matter what the allegations might be. That's some serious cash pal.