Court of Appeals Reopens Duke Energy Electric Power Deal Case

Duke Energy will face antitrust charges in connection with a lawsuit alleging that the North Carolina-based power producer excluded a competitor from the electricity market after the Fourth Circuit Court reversed a lower court ruling in the company’s favor.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in an opinion issued Monday reversed the district court’s order for summary judgment, ruling that a reasonable jury could have concluded that Duke’s actions constituted “illegal anticompetitive conduct” in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits attempts to monopolize.

“We conclude that there are still numerous genuine disputes of material fact in this case, …