Forestry Contractor Beats Appeal in Timber Markets Antitrust Row

A logging and forestry contractor in Oregon defeated an appeal from a group of loggers, landowners, and a sawmill seeking $117 million over an alleged scheme to dominate the regional timber industry.

The plaintiffs failed to plead anticompetitive conduct or antitrust injury, Judge Milan D. Smith Jr. wrote in a Tuesday opinion from a panel in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, affirming a lower court decision dismissing the claims.

Iron Triangle in 2013 won a 10-year, $69 million stewardship contract from the US Forest Service for the Malheur National Forest in Oregon’s Blue Mountains.

But the ...