Thales Avionics, Inc. alleged that Panasonic Avionics Corporation, formerly Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation, had engaged in predatory pricing with respect to in-flight entertainment systems.
Retained by Dewey Ballantine
Thales Avionics, Inc. alleged that Panasonic Avionics Corporation, formerly Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation, had engaged in predatory pricing with respect to in-flight entertainment systems.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment to Panasonic on all of Thales’s claims.
Counsel for Panasonic retained an economics professor and Cornerstone Research to study issues of liability. The expert analyzed the market for in-flight entertainment products and Panasonic’s pricing and costs. He showed, among other things, that plaintiff’s cost accounting expert had not properly compared Panasonic’s prices with its costs, and that when the analysis was corrected, plaintiff’s contention that Panasonic’s pricing was predatory was not sustainable.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted defendants’ motions to exclude the testimony of all three of Thales’s economic and accounting experts and granted summary judgment to Panasonic on all of Thales’s claims.