Applied Medical has been awarded $382 million in damages from Medtronic after a U.S. District Court jury in California unanimously found the medtech giant liable for suppressing competition of blood-vessel sealing surgical devices.
The case dates back to 2023, when Medtronic rival Applied Medical took the company to court alleging it had “engaged in exclusionary unlawful bundling and exclusive dealing practices to suppress competition in the market for advanced bipolar vessel sealing devices,” Applied explained in a Feb. 6 release.
Thursday, Feb. 5, the jury agreed, finding that Medtronic had been selling its LigaSure device at low prices and bundling it with other products in contracts to make the company’s offerings more appealing.
This essentially monopolized the market and hurt competition for Applied’s rival device Voyant. The jury found Medtronic liable and told it to pay $381.7 million in damages to Applied.
“We are profoundly grateful to the jury for their time, their attention to the evidence, and their decisive verdict,” Gary Johnson, group president, advanced energy, who represented Applied Medical throughout the trial, said in a statement.
“This is not just a legal victory for Applied; it is a validation of fair competition,” Johnson added. “We believe this decision marks a turning point for hospitals and healthcare providers struggling to dismantle complex contractual barriers that have long prevented them from access to innovation, choice and value.”
Medtronic said it plans to appeal, according to Reuters, adding that surgeons “choose Medtronic’s LigaSure device time and again because it outperforms Applied’s Voyant.”
