Bike Maker Sues 5 Top Aluminum Producers

An Orange County bicycle manufacturer has become the point player in a $4.4-billion price-fixing lawsuit against North America’s five top aluminum producers.

The bike maker, John Hammons, owner of Full Circle Distributing Co. in Huntington Beach, is the sole plaintiff in the proposed class-action suit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Century City attorney Richard I. Fine.

Hammons could not be reached for comment. Fine, an antitrust and government waste specialist, said his law firm had been developing the suit for several months when Hammons, who uses aluminum for bicycle frames, asked to participate in the case. Fine said he filed the suit in state court rather than federal court because California law allows damages to be sought on behalf of a broader class of plaintiffs.

The suit alleges that the aluminum producers, in concert with government trade officials in the U.S., Russia and Canada, deliberately reduced worldwide aluminum production in 1994 and 1995 in order to drive up prices. The suit must be certified as a class action by the court.

The proposed class-action lawsuit on behalf on anyone who purchased aluminum in the U.S. during 1994 seeks payments from Alcan Aluminum Corp. of Ohio, a unit of Canada’s Alcan Aluminum Ltd.; Aluminum Co. of America, Pittsburgh; Alumax Inc., Norcross, Ga.; Kaiser Aluminum Corp., Houston; Reynolds Metals Corp., Richmond, Va.; and the Aluminum Assn., the Washington trade group that represents the five companies.

The producers denied that they engaged in any price fixing.