Class litigation alleging investors colluded to ratchet up interest rates in municipal auctions of tax liens will move forward after a New Jersey federal judge declined to strike down state and federal antitrust claims.

The plaintiff property owners “allege more than a sufficient amount of factual material tending to show the existence of collusion on the local level,” U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp said Oct. 31 in In re New Jersey Tax Sales Certificates Antitrust Litigation.