Rolls-Royce Trying to Corner Plane Fan Blade Market, Suit Says

Rolls-Royce PLC was hit with an antitrust lawsuit Wednesday claiming it’s trying to shut down the secondary market for certain airplane engine fan blades that only it can manufacture and refurbish.

Rolls is the sole maker of fan blades for planes running on Trent 1000 engines, a group that includes major jetliner models made by nonparties Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, according to the complaint. The suit concerns the resale market for 20 Trent 1000 fan blades damaged when an unspecified Boeing plane engine “inadvertently ingested dust and grit.”

It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern ...