An antitrust lawsuit searching for to unravel the Charles Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger could proceed following a current federal court docket ruling.

The retail investor plaintiffs within the class motion lawsuit in opposition to Schwab contend the 2020 deal considerably lessened competitors, harming brokerage shoppers. Schwab had requested the court docket to dismiss the case.

Schwab’s TD Ameritrade acquisition shaped “unprecedented market focus,” giving the mixed firms about half of all retail order stream funds, the plaintiffs declare within the go well with. They search financial damages and an order divesting Schwab of TD Ameritrade belongings or in any other case separating their enterprise strains.

“When contemplating a movement to dismiss … the court docket should settle for as true all well-pleaded information within the plaintiff’s grievance and examine these information within the gentle most favorable to the plaintiff,” U.S. District Decide Amos Mazzant wrote on Feb. 24, denying Schwab’s movement to dismiss the case.

The court docket discovered Schwab’s arguments for dismissal “are unavailing at this stage of the litigation, and it finds that plaintiffs have acknowledged believable claims for reduction” sufficient to defeat the dismissal movement.

Amongst different factors, Mazzant mentioned plaintiffs’ contentions the deal had concentrated market competitors are enough to outlive the movement to dismiss. The plaintiffs, who allege they now pay increased transaction prices for his or her trades and undergo from diminished shopper decisions within the wake of the merger, even have pleaded an antitrust damage enough for the case to proceed, he dominated.

“The court docket finds that plaintiffs have adequately alleged that anticompetitive outcomes stream from the Charles Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger,” Mazzant wrote in his opinion and order.