Metal dealers face US lawsuit after accusations of price fixing
Four large scale platinum and palladium dealers have been sued in the US for what the plaintiff’s law firm have called the first nationwide class action over an alleged price-fixing of the metals.
A complaint was filed on Tuesday in the US District Court in Manhattan against Goldman, BASF, HSBC Holdings and South Africa’s Standard bank Group Ltd. The companies were accused of conspiring since 2007 to rig platinum and palladium ‘fixings’, as well as the options and futures based on them.
The plaintiff, Modern Settings LLC, a maker of jewellery and police badges based in Florida, claimed metals purchasers had lost millions of dollars as a result. The defendants were also accused of illegally sharing customer data to engage in the ‘front-running’ of expected price moves, as well as manufacturing ‘fake’ orders.
The complainant seeks unspecified damages for the defendants’ alleged violation of US antitrust and commodities laws. All four companies declined to comment.