In long-running multidistrict litigation over U.S. dollar LIBOR, Barclays Bank PLC obtained summary judgment on all remaining antitrust and state law claims. On September 25, Judge Naomi Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a 273-page opinion granting summary judgment in favor of Barclays and other bank defendants on individual and class action claims that they engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy and other unlawful conduct to manipulate USD LIBOR.
Judge Buchwald held that there was insufficient evidence to infer the existence of a multiyear, sixteen-bank conspiracy to suppress LIBOR. The court also granted defendants’ Daubert motions and excluded plaintiffs’ models showing how LIBOR was allegedly suppressed, and found that plaintiffs’ evidence of a suppression was too meager. As a result, the court held that plaintiffs failed to plead sufficient injuries.
This decision marks a significant milestone in events that began when LIBOR settings first attracted scrutiny in 2007 at the outset of the financial crisis. At its height, the USD LIBOR MDL encompassed approximately 50 individual cases and multiple putative class actions.
The S&C team representing the Barclays entities included Jeff Scott, Matt Porpora, Jonathan Carter, Stephen Clarke, Mark Popovsky, Arturo Schultz, Gulliver Brady, Robbie Jones, Krystal Valentin and Alyx Brannan.