ANTITRUST SETTLEMENT: CALIFORNIA CLAIMS

Antitrust Settlement of California Antitrust Claims

We obtained a highly favorable, confidential settlement for a reseller of medical devices that challenged certain distribution restrictions under California’s Cartwright Act § 16700 et seq.

In this case, a California Superior Court permitted us to challenge resale price maintenance as a per se violation of the Cartwright Act. It otherwise permitted us to challenge distribution restraints imposed by the dominant manufacturers of the at-issue medical devices.

The manufacturers stopped selling the devices to the reseller because it had tried to make sales in violation of their restrictive distribution policies. By the settlement, they resumed making sales to the reseller, made exceptions to their challenged policies, and paid a substantial settlement.