Drivers living in city brought putative class action against private entity that had been granted a 75-year concession over city’s parking meters, alleging claims under the Sherman Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (ICFA).
The United States District Court dismissed drivers’ Sherman Act claim for failure to state a claim based on the state-action immunity doctrine and relinquished jurisdiction over drivers’ ICFA claim. Drivers appealed.
The Court of Appeal held that:
- City had authority under Illinois law, pursuant to a clearly articulated and affirmatively expressed state policy, to regulate parking on city streets, and city was thus entitled to state-action immunity under the Sherman Act for its decisions with respect to parking spaces and meters, and
- Under contract granting concession to entity, city had sufficient control, amounting to active state supervision, over entity’s administration of parking meters such that state-action immunity precluded drivers’ Sherman Act claim against entity.