September 1, 2015

Over $22 M Recovered in “Containerboard” Antitrust Class Action Cases

Western Growers’ members that directly purchased linerboard, corrugated boxes and other corrugated containers and materials (“Containerboard Products”) from some of the world’s leading containerboard product manufacturers from 2004 through 2010, stand to share in millions of dollars in antitrust class action settlements collected to date. To participate in the settlement, you must submit a claim once the claims process begins. To assist you, Western Growers has engaged Financial Recovery Strategies (FRS), a leading asset recovery and cost reduction firm, as WG’s exclusive class action settlement claim consultant. WG negotiated a substantial discount for our members for FRS’s class action claims recovery services on the Containerboard case and other class action litigations. Services are done on a contingency fee basis; if no recovery is made, no fees are charged, and FRS covers all expenses.

The Containerboard class action began in 2010 when a lawsuit was filed in a Federal District Court in Illinois alleging that Packaging Corporation of America (“PCA”); International Paper; Cascades Canada, ULC and Norampac Holdings U.S. Inc.; Weyerhaeuser Company; Georgia Pacific LLC; Temple-Inland Inc.; TIN Inc.; and RockTenn CP, LLC (formerly Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation) (collectively, “Defendants”) conspired to illegally set prices of Containerboard Products sold in the United States. So far that class has reached agreements totaling $22.4 million to settle the claims against PCA and Norampac. The Court has granted final approval for these settlements; the litigation is ongoing against the remaining Defendants. It is possible that additional funds may become available to the class as the result of a trial or future settlements. Companies that purchased Containerboard Products directly from one of the Defendants are eligible to participate in the recovery of settlement payments.

Please review and sign FRS’ one-page Authorization Agreement to file and manage your Containerboard claim and/or other class action claims and to have FRS monitor this and other cases to keep you advised of relevant developments.

FRS is not a court-appointed claims administrator or class counsel. Claimants may choose to file claims on their own and not hire FRS to participate in the monetary relief provided by any settlement. Western Growers and FRS believe, however, that there are services that FRS provides that may increase recoveries and that are unlikely to be provided by a claims administrator or by class counsel. For more information about FRS and the services it provides, please visit www.FRSco.com, or call either Steve Rimpici, FRS’s vice president of sales, at (201)853-1236.