The company is seeking to overturn a judge’s ruling that dismissed its antitrust case against the state dental board, a case that was filed in 2019.
SmileDirectClub LLC is trying to revive its lawsuit against the California State Dental Board. On Monday, James Dasso, an attorney representing the company, and a partner with Foley & Lardner, argued before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the state board should face antitrust claims over the board’s investigation into the company.
A federal judge in Los Angeles had previously dismissed the company’s complaint. Dasso says that judge applied the wrong standard in assessing SmileDirectClub’s claims that the board participated in an anticompetitive agreement to suppress its entry into the market.
“An entire new disruptive model is coming into the marketplace, and that model is being met with resistance by the dental board,” Dasso told the court.
“The idea that you can do these things over the internet more cheaply and more conveniently really presents a major threat to the existing dentists and orthodontists,” Dasso added.
SmileDirectClub sued the California State Dental Board in 2019, accusing it of pursuing an “aggressive, anticompetitive campaign of harassment and intimation” against it and alleging violations of the Sherman Act.
