US Steel and Nippon sue Biden administration, steelworkers union and Cleveland Cliffs over their blocked merger

US Steel and Nippon, whose $14.3 billion merger was blocked by President Joe Biden last week, filed a lawsuit against the US government Monday, claiming Biden’s executive order to bar the companies from combining was signed for “purely political reasons.”

US Steel and Nippon, whose $14.3 billion merger was blocked by President Joe Biden last week, filed a lawsuit against the US government Monday, claiming Biden’s executive order to bar the companies from combining was signed for “purely political reasons.” “Today’s legal actions demonstrate Nippon Steel’s and US Steel’s continued commitment to completing the transaction – despite political interference,” the companies said in a statement. The suit is no surprise. The day Biden issued an order blocking the deal, the companies called the action “a clear violation of due process” and said they had “no choice but to take all appropriate action to protect our legal rights.” Biden had spoken for months about his opposition to the deal. The companies said that Biden had “ignored the rule of law to gain favor with … (the United Steelworkers union) and support his political agenda.” In addition to the suit seeking to throw out Biden’s order, the companies filed a separate suit against Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of rival steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs and Dave McCall, president of the USW, for their actions to try to block the deal, which the suit charges are “anticompetitive and racketeering activities illegally designed to prevent any party other than Cliffs from acquiring US Steel as part of an illegal campaign to monopolize critical domestic steel markets.” In addition to seeking to block Cliffs and the USW from acting together, that separate lawsuit seeks “substantial monetary damages for their conduct.”