1-800 Contacts Sued Again Over Alleged Anti-Competition Conspiracy

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Another antitrust lawsuit has been thrown at 1-800 Contacts alleging the company was the ringleader of a scheme that prevented contact lens companies from competing against each other through online search advertisements. Filed in Pennsylvania by six named consumers, the lawsuit alleges the defendant—the largest online seller of contact lenses in the country—violated federal antitrust statutes by unlawfully entered into hush-hush “no-bidding” agreements with competitors. These agreements, the suit claims, deprived consumers nationwide of “truthful and non-misleading information” about contact lens prices, products and services offered by the defendant’s competitors online. Primarily at issue, plaintiffs argue, is whether the secret agreements sparked by the defendant caused consumers to pay more for contact lenses than they would have if the bidding marketing for digital ads was totally free from restriction.