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.
