National law firm Robins Kaplan LLP announced today that it has been named co-lead counsel in antitrust litigation against the four dominant manufacturers and the largest nationwide distributor of contact lenses. As co-lead counsel, Robins Kaplan represents a proposed class of individual consumers that purchased contact lenses from retailers and eye care professionals that could number in the millions.
Robins Kaplan filed one of the first class action complaints on behalf of purchasers of contact lenses in the U.S. in March 2015, alleging a conspiracy by Alcon Laboratories, Inc., Bausch + Lomb, Inc., CooperVision, Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Vision Care, Inc., and wholesale distributor ABB Optical Group, to stifle competition from discount retailers and stabilize prices in the $4 billion contact lens market.
According to the complaint, the defendants achieved their ends through corporate policies that prohibited retailers from reselling their contact lens products for prices below established price floors. A Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on the use of such pricing policies last summer, and numerous complaints on the issue have been made to the Federal Trade Commission since.
Full content: Market Watch
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