SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (June 20, 2011)—Huntsman International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Huntsman Corp., has agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit for $33 million for alleged price fixing over feedstock for polyurethane foam.
The suit charged Huntsman conspired with other defendants to fix the prices of urethane chemicals in the US. A spokesman for Huntsman said the company settled “to avoid the expense of continuing with protracted and expensive litigation,” adding that it allowed the firm's management to be “less distracted by the litigation and more focused on our business.”
The company is required to make three annual payments of $11 million. Huntsman denies any wrongdoing and said nothing had been found to suggest that anyone in the business did anything wrong.
The antitrust suit was filed in 2004 and accused Huntsman, Bayer, BASF, Dow Chemical and LyondellBasell of fixing feedstock prices. It covered propylene oxide-based polyether polyols, methyl di-phenylene isocyanate and toluene diisocyanate) purchased between Jan. 1, 1999 and Dec. 31, 2004.