MANHATTAN (CN) — Big-box retail chain Bed Bath & Beyond filed an antitrust complaint against beverage conglomerate Keurig Dr Pepper, accusing Keurig of unlawful dominance in the market for plastic, single-serve coffee pods, known as K-Cups.
Bed Bath & Beyond, which closed all of its brick-and-mortar retail stores after filing for bankruptcy in 2023, claims Keurig held a monopoly position in the K-Cup market and charged supracompetitive prices, which caused Bed Bath & Beyond to be overcharged for its purchases of over $1 billion worth of K-Cups from Keurig between 2012 and 2023.
Keurig, formerly known as Keurig Green Mountain, deployed sham lawsuits and a network of exclusionary patent agreements to foreclose the emergence of competition since September 2012, when the patents covering the technology for K-Cup filters expired, Bed Bath & Beyond claims in the complaint…