On Tuesday an egg donor, Lindsay Kamakahi (on behalf of herself and all others who sold donor services during the past four years), sued ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), SART (Society for Reproductive Technology), all SART-affiliated clinics, and all egg agencies that agreed to abide by ASRM’s egg donor compensation guidelines. The suit seeks damages and an injunction voiding the guidelines. You can access the complaint here Download Filed-Stamped Complaint.
This suit has been a long time coming. Regular Lounge readers will recall that this is an issue I’ve blogged about on numerous occasions (see here and here, for example) and on which I’ve published several articles, including Sunny Samaritans And Egomaniacs: Price-Fixing In The Gamete Market in 2009.
I don’t have time today to go into as much detail as I’d like about the complaint, the history of the pricing guidelines, and why they violate U.S. antitrust law, though I will be back with all of that information over the coming days. For today, let me simply close with an excerpt from Sunny Samaritans:
This naked price-fixing of egg donor compensation is so unusual in the modern U.S. regulatory environment of unrestrained competition that the most intriguing question it raises is not whether it violates the Sherman Act—under existing precedent it does. Rather, the relevant question is how, given the government’s substantial enforcement resources and the presence of an active and entrepreneurial plaintiffs’ bar, this buyers’ cartel has managed to survive unchallenged since at least 2000. One is tempted to assert that the twenty-dollar bill cannot be real, given that it is still lying on the sidewalk.
Glad to see Lindsay Kamakahi and her counsel reaching for that $20 bill.
Related Posts:
Politics and Profits in the Egg Business (When Sunny Samaritans Sue IV)
When Sunny Samaritans Sue, Part III
When Sunny Samaritans Sue, Continued
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