Berman Tabacco is Chair of Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the consolidated action In re California Gasoline Spot Market Antitrust, No. 3:20-cv-03131-JSC (N.D. Cal.) against multinational energy companies Vitol Inc.; SK Energy Americas, Inc.; and SK Trading International Co. Ltd., as well as individual defendants Brad Lucas and David Niemann. The firm represents California gasoline purchasers plaintiffs who allege that defendants, including lead traders on the spot market at defendant companies (Lucas and Niemann), conspired to fix and stabilize gasoline prices at artificially high levels after a February 2015 explosion at the Torrance Refinery, a refinery supplying a significant portion of the state’s gas, by manipulating the spot market for gasoline formulated for use in California and in certain gasoline blending components used in that gasoline from least February 18, 2015, the date of the explosion. After the Torrance Refinery explosion, prices for spot market gasoline contracts for deliveries to San Francisco and Los Angeles went up almost immediately. The suit follows an action brought by California’s Attorney General in San Francisco Superior Court.
