United States Steel Corporation (US Steel) and Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel have announced that they have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in order to appeal the president’s order that has prevented Nippon Steel from acquiring US Steel.
After the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had been unable to reach consensus on the deal and had left the final decision to the current president, President Biden decided to block the deal citing national security concerns, sparking a strong reaction from the two companies, as SteelOrbis reported previously. Both of them accused Biden of making a political decision and sacrificing the future of American steelmakers for his own agenda, and promised to take legal action.
The first lawsuit filed by the companies accuses President Biden of ignoring the rule of law to please the United Steelworkers (USW) union and to support his political agenda, and of influencing CFIUS to advance his political agenda, which resulted in a biased process depriving Nippon Steel and US Steel of their rightful opportunity for fair consideration. In the light of these factors, the lawsuit asks the court to overrule CFIUS’ review process and President Biden’s blocking order, and also to order CFIUS to conduct a new review.
In the meantime, US Steel and Nippon Steel have also sued US-based steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW, alleging that Cliffs and the leadership of the USW were in cahoots to prevent the deal and to block other parties other than Cliffs from acquiring US Steel, and to harm US Steel’s ability to compete. As a result, the complainants demanded that Cliffs and the USW leadership be prevented from engaging in covert and anticompetitive conduct and that substantial monetary damages be imposed on them.