Applied Medical Resources has filed a motion requesting a permanent injunction against Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), seeking a resolution to the company’s federal antitrust lawsuit.
The motion, filed Aug. 14 in U.S. District Court in Central California, comes six months after a federal jury found Medtronic to have violated antitrust laws and ordered the company to pay $382 million in damages to Applied Medical.
In the suit filed in early 2023, Rancho Santa Margarita, California–based Applied Medical had accused Medtronic of using its size and illegal bundling practices to monopolize U.S. market competition for advanced bipolar devices (ABD), used to surgically cut tissue and seal blood vessels.
The antitrust complaint claimed that Medtronic sold its ABD, LigaSure, below cost and bundled it with other products, creating agreements with hospital systems and purchasing organizations that kept Applied Medical from selling its own Voyant devices.
In a statement shared with MassDevice via email, a Medtronic spokesperson said the company disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit once judgment is final.
In the motion for an injunction, Applied Medical asks that the court enter final judgment finding Medtronic’s conduct unlawful and unfair, and asserts that the defendant’s argument for the laches defense, which purports that the plaintiff waited too long to take action, fails.
The majority of the motion details Applied Medical’s demands for the injunction, which would set terms for Medtronic’s conduct while selling ABDs and aims to prevent monopolization in the future.
Applied Medical asks that hospitals and health systems be able to purchase ABD’s from Applied Medical and other suppliers without triggering higher prices, lost rebates or worse contractual terms when purchasing other products from Medtronic.
The proposed injunction additionally demands that Medtronic not prevent customers from trialing competitors to the LigaSure by imposing or threatening less favorable terms in its other agreements with the client.
It also lists several means to prohibit retaliation against customers who switch to other products and to ensure that other, new anticompetitive conduct does not threaten the ABD market moving forward.
One of these measures is a requirement of notification of the injunction to customers and employees, and the implementation of an independent hotline to report misconduct.
The federal court has a hearing scheduled in October in regard to the proposed injunction.
