Pitney Bowes Accused of Monopolizing Postal Equipment Market (1)

Pitney Bowes Inc. was hit with an antitrust lawsuit in Oregon federal court claiming it’s monopolizing the postal equipment market by poaching customers from the dealers that resell its products to consumers.

Pitney, which has a 70% share of the market for postal meters, is allegedly authorized by the U.S. Postal Service to manufacture them and lease them to companies like plaintiff Pacific Automation Inc., a downstream dealer.

Pacific and other dealers then attach additional features, such as scales, and resell them to end users, according to the complaint. Pitney once sold mainly direct to consumers, but it has relied ...