Just to add to Whirlpool’s woes after the recent Embraco compressor debacle, General Electric (GE) has pitched in according to a report in Bloomberg and others with a complaint filed in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky seeking damages from Whirlpool.
According to the report GE claims that as early as January 1996 Whirlpool and other defendants including Household Compressors Holding SpA of Italy restrained competition in the manufacturing and sale of the compressors that resulted in increased prices for end customers.
GE says in the complaint that is “has been a target and a victim of the conspirators’ cartel,” and is seeking as yet unspecified damages, as well as a court order barring violations of antitrust law.
The documents filed go on to state that GE paid “supra-competitive prices for compressors and has been deprived of innovation that would have resulted in increased efficiency, as well as increased sales and profits, in its sales of refrigerators and other refrigeration equipment,”.
Whirlpool’s compressor unit is named Embraco, according to the complaint, and GE names Embraco North America as a defendant in the case.
Rosangela Santos, an Embraco spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement that the company is examining the lawsuit and “does not believe that it has caused any harm to GE.”