Description: Antitrust class action lawsuit challenging a utility's allegedly discriminatory pricing scheme for electricity for consumers with solar energy systems.
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Ellis v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/31/2022 Opinion Download District court's dismissal affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded. Ninth Circuit Said Plaintiffs Could Proceed with Equal Protection and Antitrust Challenges to Utility Pricing Scheme that Disfavored Solar Energy. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of federal claims challenging a power and water utility’s pricing scheme that allowed the utility to charge customers who generate electricity through their own solar energy systems up to 65% more for the utility’s electricity. Applications for solar energy systems decreased by 50–96% after adoption of the pricing scheme. Although the Ninth Circuit agreed with the district court that the plaintiffs could not proceed with their state law claims because they failed to comply with notice of claim requirements, the Ninth Circuit held that the plaintiffs’ equal protection claims were timely and that they adequately stated antitrust injury. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s rejection of defenses raised by the utility but agreed that the Local Government Antitrust Act precluded recovery of antitrust damages, but not declaratory and injunctive relief. 07/08/2020 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by Center for Biological Diversity et al. as amici curiae in support of reversal. 07/08/2020 Amicus Brief Download Brief filed by United States as amicus curiae supporting plaintiffs-appellants. 07/01/2020 Brief Download Opening brief filed by appellants. -
Ellis v. Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement & Power District
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/10/2020 Order Download Motion to dismiss granted with leave to amend two claims. 05/07/2019 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss filed. 04/23/2019 Complaint Download First amended complaint filed. Antitrust Class Action in Arizona Federal Court Challenged Alleged Discriminatory Pricing Scheme for Consumers with Solar Energy Systems. An antitrust class action lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the District of Arizona alleged that a public utility took actions “to unlawfully maintain its existing monopoly power over the retail delivery of electricity to customers throughout its service territory … by engaging in anticompetitive conduct designed to eliminate solar energy competition by implementing a discriminatory pricing scheme” that imposed higher electricity rates on consumers with solar energy systems. The complaint’s allegations included that the utility’s price plan “prevents consumers from taking advantage of solar energy systems purchased in order to save money, promote environmental policies, conserve natural resources and promote other beneficial policies realized through the self-generation and use of solar energy” (including reduction of air pollution, water pollution, and greenhouse gases). The complaint asserted claims under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Arizona Uniform State Antitrust Act, the Arizona Constitution, Arizona’s public utilities statute, and the Equal Protection Claus of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.