At least 20 million contact-lens buyers nationwide can get rebates on future purchases after a manufacturer settled claims with Idaho and 25 other states that it illegally inflated prices.
The agreement Monday settles civil complaints that CIBA Vision Corp. unlawfully limited the sale of its contact lenses through discount outlets.Under the settlement, CIBA will provide former customers who buy four multipacks of CIBA Vision, Vistakon or Bausch & Lomb lenses with cash rebates of $35 and coupons worth another $8.
A multipack typically provides six lenses and sells for anywhere from $60 to $200.
Consumers paid an additional $1 to $3 for a pack of six lenses, according to Scott Palmer, a Florida assistant attorney general.
In the past decade, at least 20 million people around the nation paid an estimated $135 million more for contact lenses, according to Tom Dove, deputy attorney general in California.
Florida filed a federal lawsuit in 1994 against CIBA Vision and the nation's other top lens makers, Johnson & Johnson and Bausch & Lomb Inc. A national class-action suit was later added and 25 other states filed a similar lawsuit in New York last December.
Suits against J&J and Bausch & Lomb, as well as several optometrists and professional associations, are still pending.
CIBA Vision, which did not admit to wrongdoing, also agreed to pay $5 million to cover attorney fees. The settlement must be approved by a federal judge in Jacksonville.
In a statement from its Atlanta headquarters, CIBA Vision, a unit of Swiss drug maker Novartis AG, said it settled because legal costs would have outweighed the cost of the settlement.
In addition to Idaho, the states involved in the settlement were Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.