NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Three tire companies are suing rubber-chemicals maker Chemtura Corp. in federal court in Nashville, seeking refunds and triple damages for goods purchased during a global price-fixing conspiracy.
Middlebury, Conn.-based Chemtura, which last year changed its name from Crompton Corp., has pleaded guilty in a federal case and has been fined by European regulators for its role in artificially boosting prices of chemicals used to make rubber between 1995 and 2001.
The lawsuit was filed late last week by the Nashville-based North American subsidiaries of Japanese tire maker Bridgestone Corp.; tire retread company Bandag Inc. of Muscatine, Iowa; and Pirelli Tire LLC of Rome, Ga.
Chemtura and subsidiary Uniroyal Chemical Corp. are named as defendants.
''Defendants conspired in a global price-fixing scheme that had the direct and substantial effect of keeping prices paid by purchasers in the United States artificially high,'' the lawsuit says.
The U.S. Justice Department and European regulators began their investigation into several rubber companies in 2002. Chemtura pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in 2004 and was fined $50 million.
The European Commission in December levied a $91 million fine on Flexsys NV, Bayer AG and Chemtura for breaking European Union antitrust rules by secretly agreeing to control both the European and global markets for rubber chemicals.
European regulators said they believed collusion may have been taking place as far back as the 1970s.
The tire companies in the Nashville lawsuit are seeking a return of the full amount paid for any goods bought during the conspiracy and ''treble damages to remedy injuries they sustained as a result of defendants' illegal activities.''
The companies said they bought ''hundreds of millions of dollars'' of rubber chemicals from the defendants and their fellow conspirators. Specific figures are not listed.
Chemtura last year agreed to pay $62 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over the price-fixing conspiracy in federal court in San Francisco. The three companies in the Nashville lawsuit were not participants in the California litigation.
Bridgestone has already settled with other companies involved in the conspiracy but couldn't reach an agreement with Chemtura, said spokesman Dan MacDonald.
''You always want to see if you can resolve things in the fastest, most effective, most efficient way,'' MacDonald said. ''We've just been unable to reach a settlement.''
Chemtura spokeswoman Debra Durbin said the company has not seen the complaint, hasn't been served and is unable to comment.