SRK has been appointed as interim Co-Lead Counsel for direct purchaser plaintiffs in an antitrust action against Intuitive Surgical, Inc.
The claim against Intuitive alleges that the company’s monopoly position forces hospitals to buy its maintenance services and replacement parts at inflated prices even though cheaper options exist – in practice, illegally tying the sale of replacement EndoWrists and da Vinci service to the purchase of a da Vinci.
While Intuitive sells da Vinci surgical robots for $500,000 to $2.5 million per unit, the bulk of their annual robot related revenue – $4 billion – comes from instruments, accessories, and service contracts that are needed to keep the robots operating. In 2019 alone, Intuitive recorded more than $1.7 billion in instrument sales, including EndoWrists, and $500 million worth of service revenue.
The matter is currently pending before U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, California. See the complaint alleging violations of the federal antitrust laws. If you purchased any EndoWrist instruments or da Vinci service from Intuitive at any time from May 21, 2017 to the present, you may have overpaid because of the alleged scheme. For further information, or if you want to discuss your legal rights in the proposed class-action lawsuit, please email SRK partners Jeff Corrigan at jcorrigan@srkattorneys.com or Jeff Spector at jspector@srkattorneys.com, or call our office at 215-496-0300.