The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) has filed an amicus brief regarding a Supreme Court case brought by lab diagnostics company Labcorp.
“A Supreme Court case brought by Labcorp, the diagnostic testing giant, doesn’t have much to do with pharmacy, but the outcome could affect whether independent pharmacies can pursue class-action cases against bad actors in the PBM [pharmacy benefit managers] and insurance industries,” the NCPA said in an April 9 statement.
“One of the most important ways for small businesses to fight back against large corporate monopolies is to bring a class-action lawsuit,” said NCPA General Counsel Matthew Seiler in the announcement. “Labcorp is asking the Supreme Court to make a radical change in the rules for certifying class-action lawsuits. If it succeeds, it will be much more difficult for independent community pharmacies to protect from unfair, anticompetitive practices by pharmacy benefit managers and large insurance companies.”
The NCPA announcement said Labcorp is arguing that a court cannot certify a class until it determines “whether every single member of that proposed class suffered an injury.” The NCPA said such a determination process would be “impractically cumbersome and burdensome.”
If Labcorp wins its case, the NCPA said, “It would mean that small businesses, including independent community pharmacies, might no longer be able to protect free markets and the communities they serve through class-action litigation. Class-action lawsuits are brought by plaintiffs on behalf of an entire class of injured parties. The class could include thousands, or even millions, of potential claimants. Labcorp’s argument is that a court must ensure that every single member of the class must have verifiable damages before it can allow the case to move forward.”
“That’s practically impossible,” Seiler said. “It would prevent many class-action cases from ever getting off the ground, and that would be an enormous advantage for PBMs, large insurers, and other corporate bad actors.”
The Massachusetts Bar Association describes amicus or “friend of the court” briefs as being “from parties not directly involved in a case, but that may have an interest or opinion about a case pending before the court.”
