CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The stakes got higher Friday in a controversy involving a large paving company and its customers when the state Department of Transportation and Division of Highways filed a antitrust lawsuit alleging West Virginia Paving and other companies formed a monopoly to drive up asphalt prices.
The DOH’s lawsuit comes two days after the cities of Charleston, Beckley, Bluefield and Parkersburg filed similar action.
The lawsuits allege the companies formed a de facto monopoly. State Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox said he’s been concerned about a lack of competition for paving jobs for some time.
“About one year ago, I directed the Legal Division to review and explore options to redress apparent anti-competitive behavior and monopolistic conduct in West Virginia’s asphalt market,” Mattox said in a news release. “We have now concluded that filing this complaint is necessary to ensure our taxpayers aren’t unfairly bearing the financial burden of this improper behavior. We will continue to review conduct among asphalt manufacturers and other contractors and launch future initiatives to promote competitive pricing.”
The lawsuit alleges the defendants have gained control of 15 asphalt plants that at one time competed against each other.
West Virginia Paving denies the allegations calling them “factual misrepresentations” and describes the specific allegation of driving up prices by 40 percent “blatantly false.”
“As the cities are aware, the bulk of all price changes were directly related to the cost of transportation and raw materials,” the company said in a prepared statement. “Since WVP and the other defendants purchase the majority of their hauling services, aggregates, and liquid asphalt from third parties, the price of asphalt is primarily based on the prices charged by third parties for these materials and services and WVP and the other defendants could not artificially inflate prices by 40 percent.”
West Virginia Paving also said the cities could have been doing more over the years to keep prices down.
The state DOH’s suit was filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court.