The unsettled question of whether an agricultural collective’s accidental inclusion of a non-agricultural member would cut through the collective’s shield from certain antitrust laws has been certified to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

U.S. District Judge Thomas N. O’Neill Jr. of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania certified his order in an antitrust class action that was brought by direct purchasers against the members of the former Eastern Mushroom Marketing Cooperative.