Invisalign Maker Hit With New Antitrust Suit

Align was hit with another proposed class action that alleges the Invisalign orthodontics maker drove up prices and abused its market dominance by enticing dentists to opt for their aligners and teeth scanners. 

Align’s Invisalign products dominate 90% of the invisible aligner market and are sold at gross margins exceeding 75%, according to the complaint, filed May 3 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. 

Invisalign aligners are sold through dental offices, with full-course treatments costing up to US$8,000, according to the suit. Scanners are used to take digital images of patients’ teeth. Align had been able to charge high prices and earn high profit margins on Invisalign because the product was protected by a thicket of hundreds of patents that Align wielded aggressively to protect its Aligner monopoly, according to the complaint.

Furthermore the complaint claims that faced with competition from the loss of patent exclusivity, Align implemented an anticompetitive scheme to willfully acquire and maintain its monopoly position.

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