The consumer settlements require court approval.
A pro-consumer settlement may be possible only with payment from the branded to the generic manufacturer, coupled with entry that actually occurs before patent expiration -- for instance, when the branded drug company has a strong patent case, but the generic is overly optimistic.
As antitrust lawyer David Balto writes, the FTC has not been idle during the first term of President Obama, bringing an importantantitrust action against Intel back in 2009, and achieving a pro-consumer settlement in the case less than a year later.
"You can't sweep all the good, the pro-competitive, pro-consumer settlements out with the bad," Ms. Jaeger said in an interview on Monday.
"In many complaints to the OAG Officee of the Attorney General), the provider completed the application information and submitted the application on behalf of the consumer," the settlement states.
Johnson & Johnson announced Thursday that its pharmaceutical unit had reached a $181 million consumer fraud settlement with 36 states and the District of Columbia over its marketing of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug.
In July, for example, the British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline agreed to pay $3 billion in fines, in part for promoting antidepressants and other drugs for unapproved uses; a month later, Johnson & Johnson announced that its pharmaceutical unit had reached a $181 million consumer fraud settlement with 36 states and the District of Columbia over its marketing of Risperdal, an antipsychotic drug.
Associates is now paying what the Federal Trade Commission calls "the largest consumer protection settlement in FTC history" as a penalty for pushing customers into unwanted services, e.g., high-cost credit insurance.
"There is resounding support for this consumer class settlement and the substantial benefits it provides," Elizabeth Cabraser, lead attorney for Volkswagen owners, said in a statement. .
Despite the banner numbers in the settlement, consumer groups and a range of lawmakers have criticized it for not providing enough relief for aggrieved homeowners.
It recommends that the EU, as a minimum measure, adopts the UK and Danish policy of encouraging correct consumer labelling of settlement produce.
