Class Action-Antitrust

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Micah Uetricht v. Chicago Parking Meters, LLC

Case No.: 22-1166

Officials: Wood, Hamilton, and St. Eve, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Class Action-Antitrust

The City of Chicago was desperate to find untapped sources of funds during the recession of 2008. It faced a $150 million shortfall in revenue, see Office of the Inspector General of the City of Chicago, An Analysis of the Lease of the City’s Parking Meters 13–14 (2009), available at http://dig.abclocal.go.com/wls/documents/060209parkingmeter.pdf, and it emphatically did not want to bridge the gap with a tax increase. Realizing that the city-controlled metered street parking was an asset it could monetize, it ended up awarding a 75-year Concession over designated parking spaces to the private firm Chicago Parking Meters, LLC (“CPM”), which agreed to give the City an upfront cash payment of more than a billion dollars in exchange. After CPM took over, the price of parking in areas covered by the Concession more than doubled. Litigation in both state and federal courts followed. A federal class action filed by “two car drivers who live in Chicago,” asserted that CPM has violated the federal antitrust laws, 15 U.S.C. 1, 2.

They did not name the City as a codefendant. The district court never ruled on the class allegations. Instead, it dismissed plaintiffs’ antitrust theories for failure to state a claim, on the ground that they were barred by the state-action immunity doctrine of Parker v. Brown, 317 U.S. 341 (1943); it then relinquished jurisdiction over the supplemental state-law count.

The Seventh Circuit agreed. The Concession represents a use of municipal authority to substitute, during the term of the lease, exclusive private operation for direct city operation of specified areas of Chicago’s on-street parking facilities. The City had the necessary authority to enter into this arrangement.

Affirmed.

Decided 04/07/23

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