FTC’s Antitrust Ruling on 1-800 Contacts Gets Overturned (1)

1-800 Contacts Inc. convinced the Second Circuit to reverse an FTC ruling that the contact lens retailer used trademark agreements with rivals to manipulate online ads and inflate prices.

The Federal Trade Commission failed to provide evidence of anticompetitive price increases that resulted from 1-800 Contacts’ agreements with rivals to allegedly restrict competition in online ad auctions, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said in a ruling Friday.

Between 2004 and 2013, 1-800 Contacts pressured competitors to strike 13 agreements to settle disputes over trademark infringements related to their online advertisements, the appellate court said in an ...