Numerous campus-area bars, which two UW-Madison students claimed voluntarily succumbed to pressure by city officials to limit drink specials, have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting a 2002 antitrust lawsuit.
The case has recently drawn attention because the State Supreme Court agreed to hear it.
Kendall Harrison, attorney for the Dane County Tavern League and other downtown bars, said the lawsuit—filed in 2002 by UW-Madison students Nic Eichenseer and Brian Dougherty—has taken a heavy financial toll on 24 campus-area bars, including Wando's, the Nitty Gritty and State Street Brats.
""They're very disappointed,"" Harrison said of the bar owners involved in the case. ""They want this behind them. They've spent a lot of time, money and energy in the process of defeating what we feel to be a not very well conceived lawsuit.""
""We remain pretty convinced that the arguments that we made and succeeded on before are going to succeed again,"" Harrison said, ""but there's obviously additional time and expense associated with having to do it again and our folks want to move on with their lives and run their businesses.""
According to a statement made in 2002 by Marsh Shapiro, owner of the Nitty Gritty, the bars put limits on drinks voluntarily, but did so in an effort to curb binge drinking on campus. The statement said drink specials were limited on Friday and Saturday nights after 8 p.m. to see if they were indeed the problem of downtown crime at the time.
""We want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,"" Shapiro said in the statement.
Still, the case is headed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, according to the plaintiff's attorney Steven Uhr, because the decision that a price-fixing conspiracy occurred was upheld in the court of appeals. He said any victim of a price-fixing conspiracy is entitled to the refund of their original purchase.
According to Uhr, Chancellor John Wiley is being sued on the federal level for the university's involvement in limiting drink specials.
""They wanted [drink] prices to go up so that students would drink less,"" Uhr said.
Casey Nagy, special assistant to Wiley, said he was not at liberty to comment on the allegations made by the students, but noted it has been a hectic process.
""In terms of pending litigation... it's in everybody's best interest to remain circumspect about what they say,"" Nagy said.
Others also have said the suit has been time consuming and costly.
""This has been expensive litigation,"" Harrison said, adding that numerous document exchanges and in-depth research have created mounting legal fees.
