A squadron of top litigators has descended on Wilmington, Del., ready to duke it out over claims that truck components manufacturer Eaton Corp. owes billions of dollars in damages to rival Meritor Inc.
A damages-only trial kicks off on June 23 in an antitrust case Meritor has been pressing against Eaton since 2006. In 2009 a different jury returned a verdict that Eaton negotiated anticompetitive supply contracts with customers in order to preserve a near-monopoly on truck transmission sales. Meritor is seeking $800 million in the latest phase of the case, which works out to $2.4 billion after automatic trebling of damages.
