Simpson Thacher Secures Dismissal for Deutsche Bank in Odd-Lots Litigation
On September 2, 2025, the Firm secured a victory on behalf of Deutsche Bank when U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni dismissed an antitrust lawsuit accusing 10 large banks of conspiring to rig corporate bond prices at the expense of ordinary investors. Plaintiffs had charged defendants with “remarkable parallel pricing in terms of odd-lots versus round lots” that they claimed could “only be explained by anticompetitive behavior.”
In dismissing the case with prejudice, Judge Caproni said that although 97% of the market in electronic trading of corporate bonds occurs on three trading platforms currently supported by the defendants, investors failed to prove the banks conspired to operate those platforms as a "catch-and-kill" operation to thwart fair prices, while boycotting rival platforms that promoted fair prices. She also held that ultimately the allegations were insufficiently pleaded and time-barred by the Sherman Act's four-year statute of limitations.
The Simpson Thacher team included John Terzaken and Adrienne Baxley.