A federal judge has ruled that he doesn’t have the authority to stop the closure of a plant that makes glassware in Charleroi.
“While the Court is sympathetic to employees whose jobs might be at risk and a long-time local facility that may cease production … the Court must narrowly consider the requirements of federal antitrust law and determine whether they have been met,” said federal judge J. Nicholas Ranjan. “They have not.”
In March the company Centre Lane purchased the plant, which makes Pyrex glassware. In September the firm announced that it was closing the facility and moving its operations to another plant in Lancaster, Ohio. Many of the 270 Charleroi jobs would be terminated; and the rest would have to relocate.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry intervened by asking the courts for a preliminary injunction that would stop the facility from closing. Her office argued that the combined production of the two plants would constitute greater than 90% of certain kinds of glass cookware, and this would ultimately cause prices to rise for consumers.
On Oct. 31, the judge paused the closure while he heard arguments about whether it should be halted. But on Thursday, Ranjan said the attorney general’s arguments were unpersuasive.
Ranjan didn’t come to a final conclusion on whether or not the merger violated antitrust law. The decision was confined to the question of whether or not the closure needed to be stopped immediately to prevent causing “irreparable harm.” Ranjan found that the harms the commonwealth presented — such as the cost of dismantling and later reassembling production lines — could later be undone through monetary compensation.
The judge said there wasn’t enough evidence that the merger would hurt consumers.
The attorney general had argued that the newly merged company would be able to raise its prices because it would own most of the market. But the company countered that consumers could buy other kinds of cookware, such as metal and ceramic. The company cited a survey showing that a majority of consumers preferred metal cookware over glass.
Company lawyers also argued that its market share wasn’t as large as the attorney general argued because the government’s analysis left out certain competitors — most notably, Amazon. “An analysis that excludes or discounts Amazon, without any further justification, is not reliable,” Ranjan said.
The commonwealth argued that glass cookware “holds heat better” than metal cookware and provides “versatility in doubling as food storage” because it’s transparent. But Ranjan said such economic analysis was insufficient to prove the AG's case. “Without more concrete data that goes beyond anecdotal consumer preferences … the Court cannot with any reasonable probability determine what the economic reality of the market is.”
In its filings, the AG’s office said it didn’t conduct a typical economic analysis because it didn’t have access to company market data, which it would only receive at a later stage in the lawsuit. But Ranjan said that wasn’t a strong enough basis for a preliminary injunction, which he said “should be granted only in limited circumstances.”
The judge also said that some of the attorney general’s arguments came too late. The two companies merged in March, and Ranjan noted that there wasn’t any evidence presented of prices going up during the intervening months. (The companies were not required to notify the commonwealth of the merger, and the attorney general said the office only learned of it through media reports in the late summer.)
The plant in Lancaster has previously served as a contractor to produce Pyrex glassware, the judge noted. That history undermined arguments, made by Charleroi’s union workers, that the Lancaster plant could not produce the same quality of glassware.
The strongest argument for pausing the sale, Ranjan said, concerned the harm that would result from the loss of local jobs. “The Charleroi plant is the last largest manufacturer in the community and is an important employer,” he said.
Ranjan ordered the company and the Commonwealth to enter into mediation “to reach provisional agreements pertaining to job relocation [and] continued operation of the Charleroi plant” as the case moves forward.
The Attorney General’s office hasn’t said if it will continue pursuing the case, and Republican Dave Sunday will take over the office in two months.
“Although the court’s preliminary ruling is disappointing, the decision makes clear that the case is not over, and we are determining our next steps,” said Brett Hambright, a spokesperson for the AG’s office.
