Axon Facing Class Action Over Alleged Monopoly on Taser, Body Camera Markets

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A proposed class action alleges Axon Enterprise has maintained an unlawful monopoly on the market for Tasers and body camera systems used by law enforcement nationwide, including by acquiring competitors and wielding “excessively long” supply contracts. 

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The 48-page antitrust suit highlights that Axon has kept monopoly power over the Taser and body camera markets in part by acquiring its largest competitor in the body camera market, VieVu, and signing 12-year “non-compete, market allocation, and no-poach agreements” with former VieVu parent Safariland, a maker of gun holsters, body armor and riot gear, to prevent it from “challenging its monopolies in either market.” Axon “enticed” Safariland to sell VieVu by granting the company “a preferred supply contract for Taser holsters,” the case says. 

The foregoing arrangement is emblematic of the tactics used by Axon to keep newcomers from challenging its market share, the filing claims. Ultimately, Axon’s hold on the Taser and body camera markets has led to higher prices for buyers, including municipalities nationwide, the lawsuit alleges.

According to the complaint, demand for long-range conducted energy weapons, such as Tasers, and body-worn camera systems began to increase by the mid-2010s, particularly in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the subsequent protests for more police oversight and less reliance by law enforcement on firearms. At the same time, the case says, Axon had come into a “dominant position” in the markets for both products, possessing about 95 percent of the market for Tasers and 70 percent of the market for body cameras.

The case claims Axon “guarded” its dominant market positions by, as one tactic, enforcing patents against competitors and signing long-term supply deals with police departments, which had the effect of forcing competitors out of business and limiting the potential for market newcomers. 

VieVu eventually emerged as an upstart in the body camera arena around 2015 and 2016, the case says, and the company directly competed with Axon by offering lower prices to police departments. This forced Axon to lower its own prices, and amid the competitive threat, Axon bought VieVu from Safariland in 2018, eliminating its main competitor in a deal that included “several decade-long-plus market allocation agreements” involving product development and supply, the filing relays. 

According to the suit, Axon and Safariland were hit with a Federal Trade Commission complaint in January 2020 related to the acquisition and the agreements between the companies. Though Safariland settled with the FTC in April of that year, the agency’s administrative litigation against Axon is still pending, the case states. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all direct purchasers of Axon-produced Taser-branded long-range conducted energy weapons or Axon body-worn camera systems, and all buyers of components for Taser-brand long-range conducted energy weapons sold by Axon or Safariland within the United States at any time since May 3, 2018. 

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