DuPont Must Face Antitrust Claims From Kolon, Court Rules
DuPont Co. must face antitrust claims from South Korea textile maker Kolon Industries Inc. (120110) over its alleged monopolization of the U.S. market for para-aramid fibers, which DuPont uses in its Kevlar-branded products.
A U.S. appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, today said a federal judge didn’t properly consider DuPont’s share of the U.S. market before dismissing Kolon’s claims last year.
“DuPont is the unquestioned industry leader in the U.S. para-aramid market,” the appeals court said, adding that for several years, DuPont was the only producer in the market and “it currently sells over 70 percent of the para-aramid fibers purchased in the United States.”
Kolon, based in Gyeonggi, South Korea, made its claims in a 2009 lawsuit brought by DuPont in federal court in Richmond accusing Kolon of stealing its trade secrets related to Kevlar, used in protective clothing for police and the military.
“The Court of Appeals did not rule on the merits of that counterclaim but rather sent the case back to the trial court, where discovery will now proceed,” said Catherine Andriadis, a spokeswoman for Wilmington, Delaware-based DuPont, in an e- mailed statement. “We expect to prevail once that discovery has occurred.”
Kolon alleges DuPont illegally used multiyear supply agreements with high-volume customers that required them to buy 80 to 100 percent of the product from DuPont.
DuPont said Kolon interfered with its business by hiring a former DuPont engineer and sales representative who left the company in 2006 and formed Aramid Fiber Systems LLC of Chesterfield, Virginia, at the prompting of Kolon, according to court papers.
The case is E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Kolon Industries Inc., 10-1103, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Richmond).
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net
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