A $270 million antitrust lawsuit against Checkpoint Systems Inc. of Thorofare, N.J., a provider of electronic article surveillance (EAS) and radio-frequency (RF) ID systems, by ID Security Systems Canada Inc. has been scheduled for trial for April 22 by Judge Eduardo Robreno of the U.S. Federal Court. ID Systems—a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dutch A&A Holding BV of the Netherlands, a private multinational company owning several firms in the security and identification markets—alleges that Checkpoint maintained its monopoly by interfering with its contract to distribute radio frequency (RF) anti-shoplifting tags made by Tokai Electronics of Japan. ID Systems is seeking $270 million and punitive damages for the alleged wrongdoing by Checkpoint.

The court has denied Checkpoint’s motion for a summary judgment, concluding that the issues must be presented to the jury at trial. A hearing will be held to resolve all other pretrial matters on March 7.

According to ID Systems, a director of the Joseph Wharton Scholars Program at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Martin Asher, has submitted a report alleging that Checkpoint violated the antitrust laws. The damages claimed are supported by Samuel Kursh of The Center For Forensic Economic Studies, a firm of economists based in Philadelphia, specializing in the assessment of economic losses in commercial matters.

Dutch A&A Holding also owns Laserfuse, a proprietary, patented, RF, anti-shoplifting label technology, and is the principle shareholder in Sentry Technology Corp., a maker of proprietary electronic article surveillance (EAS) and traveling CCTV products.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

Related Content