Egg Donors Get Price Cap Removed in Class Action Lawsuit Settlement

After four years of litigation, the Class of human-egg donors who challenged the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for placing a price cap on the amount of compensation donors can receive have reached a settlement.

According to the terms of the egg donor class action settlement, the ASRM will eliminate wording that restricts the financial award for those who supply human eggs for reproductive services. At issue, the language that reads “[t]otal payments to donors in excess of $5,000 require justification and sums above $10,000 are not appropriate,” will be removed.

In addition, the egg donor class action lawsuit settlement states that the ASRM has agreed to not recommend any specific dollar amount regarding donor compensation in the future.

While the egg donor price-fixing class action settlement does not provide Class Members with monetary relief, those who want to file an individual lawsuit to recover past damages are able to do so under the agreement.

The four named plaintiffs, including Lindsay Kamakahi, Justine Levy, Chelsea Kimmel and Kristin Wells, will each receive $5,000 from the ASRM in order to release their claims of damages.

The price-fixing class action lawsuit was originally filed in 2011 over allegations that sperm and egg donors are paid the same hourly rate regardless that egg donations are “far more painful and risky.” Unlike sperm donations, egg donors must endure hormone injections, frequent tests, examinations and surgery, according to the complaint.

The egg donor class action lawsuit alleged that there are “at least thousands” of potential Class Members who use donor clinics that follow the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology and ASRM ethics rules regarding financial compensation.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Joseph C. Spero granted class certification in the egg donor lawsuit but limited it to include Class Members who donated eggs from April 2007 at any clinic that was, at the time of donation, a member of SART or followed price rules set by the society and the ASRM.

Under the terms of the egg donor price-fixing settlement, the plaintiffs will inform Class Members of the agreement by using digital media (Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook) which is expected to reach 70 percent of the women of a donating age.

They also plan to send direct notice to the 700 women who are a part of a support group known as “We Are Egg Donors,” as well as provide packets of material to each SART member clinic informing them of the settlement.

Instructions on how to file a claim for the proposed egg donor antitrust class action settlement was not immediately available. Keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

The donors are represented by Rosemary M. Rivas, Douglas G. Thompson and Michael G. McLellan of Finkelstein Thompson LLP, and Bryan Clobes and Ellen Meriwether of Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP.

The Egg Donor Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit Settlement is Kamakahi v. American Society for Reproductive Medicine et al., Case No. 3:11-cv-01781, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE July 26, 2016: Egg Donor Price-Fixing settlement details are available here, or visit http://www.eggdonorclassaction.com/ for information.