PVC pipe makers colluded on illegal price hikes, lawsuit alleges - E&E News by POLITICO

A class action lawsuit alleges the nation’s biggest PVC pipe manufacturers violated antitrust laws by coordinating illegal price hikes, overcharging customers for the most common water pipe option amid the Biden administration’s multibillion-dollar lead pipe removal initiative.

The complaint, brought against 10 manufacturers and one company providing pricing services, says the prices of the plastic electrical and water pipes rose 500 percent in the two years following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, far outpacing the price of polyvinyl chloride resin, the material used to make the pipes.

George Bavolak, owner of Minnesota electrical company Metropolitan Energy Service, hopes to represent the “at least hundreds of thousands of members” in the two proposed classes, according to the complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The classes would cover all individuals or private companies that purchased PVC pipes after Jan. 1, 2021, under U.S. antitrust law as well as laws in 28 states and the District of Columbia.