US: Surescripts moves to dismiss FTC antitrust case

Surescripts has moved to dismiss the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) charge from earlier this year that it holds an illegal monopoly on the e-prescribing market.

This past April, the FTC alleged that Surescripts “intentionally set out to keep e-prescription routing and eligibility customers on both sides of each market from using additional platforms (a practice known as multihoming) using anticompetitive exclusivity agreements, threats, and other exclusionary tactics.”

FTC stated its suit aims to counter that outsized influence and competition in the marketplace and to provide “monetary redress to consumers.”

FTC has stated its case against Surescripts was just part of its larger ongoing efforts to end anti-competitive practices that put consumers at a disadvantage and raise the cost of care.

“Surescripts’ illegal contracts denied customers and, ultimately, patients, the benefits of competition – including lower prices, increased output, thriving innovation, higher quality, and more customer choice,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Bruce Hoffman in April. “Through this litigation, we hope to eliminate the anticompetitive conduct, open the relevant markets to competition, and redress the harm that Surescripts’s conduct has caused.”