Contact Lens Manufacturers Want Price-Fixing Class Action Tossed

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Bausch & Lomb, Johnson & Johnson, and others currently facing a contact lens class action lawsuit over allegations that they conspired to maintain high prices, recently asked a federal court to throw out the pricing claims altogether.

The defendants allege that no clear evidence has been presented that they worked together to create and deploy such a price-fixing scheme.

The defendants, including Alcon Laboratories Inc. and ABB Optical Group, requested that the court provide summary judgment in their favor.

The contact lens class action lawsuit is based on arguments that the companies created and used a unilateral pricing policy which mandated resellers to charge no less than a specified minimum price for the products.

The contact lens class action lawsuit became an MDL due to the high number of lawsuits filed with similar allegations.

The consumers who initiated the contact lens class action lawsuit allege that the companies named as defendants had an agreement with the distributor of contact lenses, ABB, in which the pricing policies were set with that distributor and not among one another.

The defendants, however, argue that no coordinated conspiracy for contact lens pricing took place or is still taking place. The companies said that it had been shown throughout 50 depositions and millions of pages of documents submitted that there is no clear evidence that any coordinated pricing scheme occurred.

“Despite the production of over a million pages of documents and more than 50 depositions, there is no evidence of single communication among manufacturer defendants, or any other evidence, suggesting some coordinated effort to introduce UPPs,” the contact lens manufacturers said.

The defendants also argue that there’s no current evidence that the Class Members for the price-fixing class action lawsuit bought contact lenses from any of the resellers named in the legal claim.

One defendant company, CooperVision Inc., was also named in the MDL previously but settled with consumers in early 2018.

Each of the three manufacturers in the contact lens class action individually filed to request for summary judgment over allegations that they had vertical price-fixing agreements with ABB, claiming that no evidence shows this coordination.

The contact lens class action lawsuit was triggered after opthamologists and optometrists began asking questions about the major discounts provided on contact lens products by companies like Walmart, Costco and 1-800-Contacts. Those claims were consolidated in a 2015 MDL.

Consumers who started the contact lens class action lawsuit argue that the manufacturers have engaged in this pricing agreement in order to keep eye care professionals happy about the margins earned on the products.

Since the contact lens market can only be accessed by consumers with a valid prescription, those eye care professionals have a lot of influence, according to the consumers.

The Class is represented by Daniel C. Hedlund and Brittany N. Resch of Gustafson Gluek PLLC.

The Contact Lens Price-Fixing Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Disposable Contact Lens Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 3:15-md-02626-HES-JRK, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

UPDATE: On Oct. 16, 2018, contact lens makers including Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, ABB Optical Group, and others recently motioned to dismiss a multidistrict litigation, arguing that the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence that the lens makers conspired together to fix lens prices or that they made restrictive agreements with their buyers.

UPDATE 2: On Dec. 4, 2018, a consumer Class has been given certification in a contact lens price-fixing multidistrict litigation. 

UPDATE 3: On Sept. 17, 2019, Bausch & Lomb agreed to pay $10 million to consumers who allege that the contact lens company conspired with others to raise prices of soft, disposable lenses.

UPDATE 4: December 2019, the contact lens price-fixing class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.