JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Earlier this month, Bausch & Lomb agreed to pay $10 million to settle and exit a multidistrict case that involved a consumer complaint related to price fixing in the contact lens market, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court here. The terms of the company’s agreement in the class-action case call for B+L to pay the $10 million into a settlement fund established for the consumer class in the litigation. The case dates to 2015 when plaintiffs in several areas filed suits against the manufacturers of disposable contact lenses and their primary distributor alleging that their Unilateral Pricing Policies (UPP) were “illegal restraints on competition under Section 1 of the Sherman Act and various state unfair competition laws,” according to the court document filed earlier this month.

VMAIL reported on the lawsuit in August 2018 when three of the contact lens companies (Alcon, Johnson & Johnson Vision and B+L) involved and their distributor (ABB Optical) filed a motion seeking a summary judgment in the matter in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. 

The court filing this month noted that “the settlement here is the result of intensive negotiations between experienced attorneys who are familiar with class action litigation and with the legal and factual issues of this Action. All negotiations were arm’s-length and extensive.”

In addition, the filing noted the settlement takes into consideration the fact that “plaintiffs and lead counsel are confident in the strength of their case, but are also pragmatic in their awareness of the defenses available to B+L, and the risks inherent in trial and post-judgment appeal.”

The plaintiffs in the suit are “individual consumers who purchased disposable contact lenses pursuant to a Unilateral Pricing Policy, or UPP, implemented by one of the manufacturer defendants,” according to an earlier court filing.