Shippers Offered No Evidence of Railroad Collusion, Judge Says

Shipper plaintiffs that accused four companies operating most freight railroads in the US of colluding to inflate fuel surcharges failed to provide sufficient facts to support a conspiracy, a federal judge in Washington said.

“Plaintiffs have not pointed to any admission or ‘smoking gun’ kind of evidence here that proves a conspiracy without the necessity of any inferences,” Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said in an opinion unsealed June 27. “Nor do plaintiffs even squarely assert that they have direct evidence.”

Howell last week granted summary to the railroad company defendants—units ...