TRIAL DATE SET IN ANTITRUST SUIT AGAINST REYNOLDS

A federal trial has been scheduled in an antitrust lawsuit against a major Kettering employer and a second company.

According to a schedule filed this week in federal court in Wisconsin’s western district, a trial in Authenticom’s lawsuit against Kettering’s Reynolds and Reynolds and CDK Global LLC is set to happen Oct. 22, 2018.

That’s if the case progresses that far: Confidential settlement proposals — outlining terms of a possible settlement in the case — are due by Aug. 20, 2018. Those letters will not be part of the lawsuit’s public record, the filing said.

Both Reynolds and CDK are being sued by a third company, LaCrosse, Wisc.-based Authenticom Inc., which has accused the two companies of blocking it from auto dealership databases, even when auto dealers approved Authenticom’s use of those databases. Authenticom charges that the two companies have an “agreement” to block it and other competitors.

A spokesman for Reynolds has said the company believes that its policy of not allowing “unauthorized intermediaries” into its auto dealer database systems ultimately protects dealership data.

Authenticom is an auto dealer data integration service provider, while Reynolds and CDK are much larger companies offering auto dealer business management systems.

Meanwhile, publicly traded CDK recently revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the Federal Trade Commission has asked CDK to “produce documents relating to any agreements between ourselves and Reynolds and Reynolds.”

CDK has said the company is cooperating with the request. A Reynolds spokesman has not commented on any inquiries from the FTC.

“The parties and their attorneys must at all times treat everyone involved in this lawsuit with courtesy and consideration,” Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in Wednesday’s filing. “The parties must attend diligently to their obligation in this lawsuit and must reasonably accommodate each other in all matters so as to secure the just, speedy and inexpensive resolution of each proceeding in this matter.”

Reynolds has about 1,300 employees in a County Line Road campus near the Kettering-Beavercreek border.