PA Judge Tosses Royalty Owners’ 10-Year Fracking Antitrust Lawsuit

In 2015, a group of landowners in northeastern Pennsylvania who had leased their land for fracking filed a lawsuit against Chesapeake Energy, Anadarko, Statoil (now Equinor), Mitsui E&P, and Access Midstream (later bought by Williams), alleging the companies had improperly deducted post-production costs (e.g., gas gathering and transportation expenses) from royalties owed to the landowners in breach of their respective leases. The lawsuit also alleged collusion and conspiracy to defraud the landowners (antitrust violations). The lawsuit was on hold for many years while other lawsuits played out. In 2024, a federal court in Scranton unpaused the lawsuit, and the judge ruled, tossing out the landowners’ royalty claims (see Pennsylvania Drillers Defeat Landowner Lawsuit After 9 Years). There was one remaining aspect of the lawsuit: antitrust violations under the Sherman Act. We're just learning now that the same judge ruled in late December that the royalty owners did not suffer an "antitrust injury," dismissing the remainder of the lawsuit.

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