Getting his point across
Clearly a man who likes to get his point across clearly, Judge Alsup had earlier put the defense lawyers in their place when they had tried to keep material that they considered to be trade secrets sealed throughout the public hearing. “This court is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of your companies. I am against you hiding information from the public. If we get to summary judgment in this case nothing will be under seal," he scolded.
In case there was any remaining doubt in the minds of the plaintiffs’ attorney on the matter, he turned to him and said he didn't care “if it is under seal and it is the recipe for Coke, you have my permission to blurt it out.”
This hearing appears to be in order for the judge to decide whether or not to award this case class action status, in which a small number of plaintiffs represent the entire direct purchaser class, which includes massive technology companies like Dell, Apple and Microsoft.
Judge
Alsup is just one of five judges presiding over price fixing claims concerning
the GPU, DRAM, SRAM, TFT and CRT industries. He doesn’t appear to have
announced his judgment yet.
