Power Tool Makers Hit With Antitrust Charge Over By-Passed Safety Feature

A company called SawStop developed a technology that instantly shuts down a table saw blade before it can cut into the fingers of a careless operator, but that system has not been adopted. Now the company is suing table saw manufacturers in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging they conspired with Underwriters Laboratories to prevent the system from becoming a standard. The complaint names more than a dozen defendants, including Black & Decker, DeWALT, Hitachi, Bosch and Milwaukee, alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. A power-tool trade group and Underwriters Laboratories are also named in the complaint, as co-conspirators. A spokesperson for Robert Bosch LLC, quoted in a Salon article about the lawsuit, said that Bosch has acted in a lawful and responsible manner, and that it will deny the claims in the lawsuit and vigorously defend its position in court.

Kelley Drye & Warren attorney David Long , in a firm blog post, puts this case in some context, noting that it’s not the first where a plaintiff sued because its technology did not become an industry standard.