The lawsuit, filed April 30 in federal court in Tallahassee, Fla., had accused Atlanta, Ga.-based 1 Ignite Capital LLC, Institutional Financial Sales LLC, and Auta Lopes of attempting to sell 10 million N95 respirators to the Florida Division of Emergency Management at nearly 460% over list prices, and for falsely claiming that they were working with 3M.
In a filing on Friday, Maplewood, Minn.-based 3M said it had reached a settlement with the company to end the lawsuit, Law360 reported. Terms were not disclosed.
The company filed a total of 10 such lawsuits in April and said it will donate any damages recovered to COVID-19-related nonprofit organizations.
3M did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday’s settlement.
The FDA granted 3M an emergency use authorization (EUA) in March for N95 masks to be used by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The masks are designed to filter out 95% of particulates. The agency recently rescinded EUAs it had earlier granted for respirators made by 60 companies in China over concerns that they may be “sub-standard.”
