A jury has ordered Caterpillar to pay $100 million to International Construction Products over a terminated agreement for direct online sales of Chinese construction equipment in the U.S.
ICP sued Caterpillar in 2015 after IronPlanet terminated its agreement to set up a designated “storefront” on its website for sale of construction equipment at lower prices imported by ICP from China-based Lonking.
ICP, based in North Carolina, claimed Caterpillar and some of its dealers pressured IronPlanet to kill the deal a month after the site went live in March 2014.
Volvo Construction Equipment, Komatsu and Cat Auction Services were also named in the suit but were later dismissed. Three Cat dealers – Ring Power Corp., Ziegler Inc. and Thompson Tractor Co. – were also sued by ICP, but ICP lost that case in a U.S. District Court in Florida. That decision was upheld on appeal in October 2023.
That left Caterpillar as the only defendant remaining in the case, which went to trial starting April 5 and ended April 16 with the jury awarding ICP $100 million.
The jury rejected ICP’s antitrust claims but sided with the importer on its claim of wrongful interference with the contract and the loss of business it suffered.
Bill Isaacson, attorney for ICP and a partner with Paul, Weiss law firm in Washington, D.C., issued the following statement after the verdict:
