Roper Unit PowerPlan Must Face Utility Software Antitrust Claims

摘要

Roper Technologies Inc. unit PowerPlan Inc. lost its bid to escape antitrust litigation over its dominant position in the utility management software industry, when a federal judge in Atlantaruled that a rival’s lawsuit tells a plausible “David and Goliath” story.Judge Amy Totenberg let the case move forward in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia with claims that PowerPlan protects its market stranglehold by lockingcustomers into exclusive deals and bullying them into boycotting competitors with sham legal threats.Allegations that the scheme led to “reduced output, decreased product quality, stymied innovation, and raised prices—which are supported by specific examples—sufficiently allege anticompetitiveeffects in these markets,” Totenberg wrote in a 46-page ruling.