Yesterday, as expected, the US District Court for the Northern District of California certified a class of human egg donors in Kamakahi v. ASRM on the question of whether an agreement among members of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine to cap compensation to those donors violated the Sherman Act. The Court declined to certify the class on the issue of damages, reserving the question of how to determine that issue until after adjudication on the antitrust violation.
From the Order:
The class defined as follows is certified to determine whether the Guidelines‘ restriction of “appropriate” compensation to $5,000, or $10,000 with justification, violates the Sherman Act, with the method of adjudicating damages and injury-in-fact to be determined if Plaintiffs prevail in showing a Sherman Act violation:
All women who sold human egg donor services for the purpose of supplying human eggs to be used for assisted fertility and reproductive purposes (“AR Eggs”) within the United States and its territories at any time during the time period from April 12, 2007 to the present (the “Class Period”) to or through:
any clinic that was, at the time of the donation, a member of Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (“SART”) and thereby agreed to follow the Maximum Price Rules (as that term is defined in Plaintiffs‘ Consolidated Amended Complaint) set forth by SART and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (“ASRM”); and/or
any AR Egg Agency that was, at the time of the donation, agreeing to follow the Maximum Price Rules.
The Court’s order is available online here: Download Kamakahi classcert
Related posts:
- Sunny Samaritans’ Suit Survives
- ASRM Seeks Dismissal of Egg Donor Suit
- Kamakahi v. ASRM et al. — Updates
- Politics And Profits in The Egg Business (When Sunny Samaritans Sue, IV)
- When Sunny Samaritans Sue, Part III
- When Sunny Samaritans Sue, Continued
- When Sunny Samaritans Sue
- The Value of Smart Eggs