Louis Dreyfus accused of artificially inflating cotton prices

Business owners have a number of regulations to follow when attempting to avoid lawsuits against their company. This includes adhering to all signed contracts regarding financial agreements. Also, complying with antitrust laws is vital for businesses. If any business owners or CEOs in Arizona find themselves in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit, partnering with a Phoenix business attorney could prove vital in protecting their assets, as such is the case with Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV.

Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV, a leading commodity trading organization, has been accused of illegally cornering the cotton market in 2011, according to Reuters. Mark Allen, a trader from competing commodity trading company Glencore, filed a class-action lawsuit against Dreyfus, alleging that the company along with its Allenberg Cotton and Term Commodities units violated the antitrust law when illegally inflating prices of cotton through new contracts after the initial ones expired during the summer of 2011.

"Market-manipulation cases tend to be difficult to prove," the news source stated. "Typically, plaintiffs must show that the alleged manipulator intended to create a 'false' price for a commodity, and that the result was indeed a price that can be proven to have 'artificially' deviated from the market. The case has echoes of a suit filed in 2000 by independent U.S. oil refiner Tosco against London-based trading firm Arcadia and others, accusing them of inflating the price of Europe's Brent crude."

Because of this lawsuit, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has now been pressured to better regulate market violations. Allen has claimed that he lost at least $57,000 because of the inflated prices.

Any Arizona firms that have lost money due to another company's violation of the antitrust law may want to speak to a business attorney in Phoenix who has had experience running a business.

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