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US: Maryland Attorney General alleges Acuvue price fixing

By  |  March 6, 2016

Maryland’s attorney general has filed suit against the maker of Acuvue contact lenses, alleging it violated state antitrust law by conspiring with discount clubs to raise prices by as much as 50 percent.

The Office of the Attorney General Antitrust Division filed a civil complaint against Florida-based Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc., a subsidiary of health and beauty giant Johnson & Johnson, it announced Friday. The suit seeks court restrictions against sale pricing agreements as well as a penalty of $100,000, the maximum allowed.

It charges that Johnson & Johnson Vision Care set minimum prices for contact lens sellers after optometrists complained that prices for the lenses they sold in their offices were being undercut by stores like Costco. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care set up the policy in 2014, the suit said.

Full content: Southern Maryland Online

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