U.S. lawsuit challenging JetBlue’s Spirit deal assigned to new judge
BOSTON –
The U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit searching for to halt JetBlue Airways Corp’s deliberate US$3.8 billion acquisition of ultra-low price provider Spirit Airlines Inc. was reassigned on Wednesday to a decide recognized for attempting to hurry circumstances alongside to trial.
U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston was randomly assigned the case regardless of the Justice Department’s competition that the lawsuit must be heard by one other decide who’s overseeing a separate antitrust case involving JetBlue.
That case introduced by the Justice Department seeks to drive American Airlines and JetBlue to scrap their U.S. Northeast partnership as a result of it will imply greater costs for shoppers. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin presided over a trial final 12 months in that case however has not but issued a ruling.
The Justice Department on Tuesday argued that Sorokin ought to hear the Spirit case as properly as a result of each concerned “an assessment of JetBlue’s network plans, aircraft orders and configurations, and pricing strategy.”
Sorokin, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, on Wednesday in a quick order stated the Spirit case was wrongly assigned to him as a result of it was “incorrectly marked as related and thus not randomly assigned.”
It was then assigned to Young, a veteran jurist recognized for setting fast schedules to get circumstances to trial. Young, appointed by Republican former President Ronald Reagan, has served on the bench since 1985.
The Justice Department and JetBlue declined to remark.
The lawsuit is the newest try by President Joe Biden’s administration to push again in opposition to additional consolidation in industries with the fewest rivals.
In the case filed on Tuesday, the Justice Department stated the merger of JetBlue and Spirit would “combine two especially close and fierce head-to-head competitors.” It referred to as the deal “presumptively illegal.” It additionally stated that JetBlue deliberate to take away 10% to fifteen% of seats from each Spirit airplane.
The Justice Department’s lawsuit was joined by the states of Massachusetts and New York in addition to Washington, D.C.
JetBlue has argued that the merger, which might create the fifth-largest U.S. provider with a market share of 9%, was good for competitors and would permit it to higher compete with the massive airways.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and Diane Bartz in Washington; extra reporting by David Shepardson; modifying by Will Dunham)
