Lawsuit filed against Boats Group
Boats Group is being sued in federal court in Miami for allegedly stifling competition in the market for boat sales listing and marketing, forcing higher prices and fewer choices for buyers. Brill Maritime, which does business as Export Yacht Sales, filed the antitrust lawsuit.
Boats Group, which owns online listing sites Boat Trader, YachtWorld and boats.com, is violating antitrust law through subscription agreements that bar or discourage other brokers and dealers from listing boats on rival platforms, according to Reuters. Competing boat listing platforms have been unable to gain the scale and inventory to grow their services, according to Export Yacht Sales.
The lawsuit states:
“Boats Group has willfully acquired, maintained, and expanded its monopoly power through exclusionary conduct not based on superior products or competition on the merits. Rather, Boats Group implemented a deliberate strategy to eliminate rivals and reinforce structural barriers to entry.
“As alleged above, Boats Group entrenched its monopoly position through a series of strategic acquisitions that eliminated its largest competitors, enabled it to impose sustained supracompetitive pricing, and facilitated its use of exclusive dealing provisions that foreclose competitors from accessing necessary inventory and scale.”
Brill Maritime requests that the Court permanently enjoin Boats Group from engaging in the anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct as described, require Boats Group to take affirmative actions necessary to restore competition in the relevant market, and award treble damages, actual damages and attorneys’ fees to the plaintiff.
