Ben Steinberg Honored at American Antitrust Institute Enforcement Awards

Robins Kaplan LLP is pleased to announce that the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) will honor Ben Steinberg as part of its 2020 Antitrust Enforcement Awards. Steinberg and his co-counsel, Nathaniel Giddings of Hausfeld LLP, will be honored with the “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer” award for their work prosecuting alleged price fixing in the contact lens industry. They are two of just six attorneys to be honored with this recognition nationwide.

For the last five years, Steinberg and Giddings have helped lead the plaintiffs’ prosecution of In re Disposable Contact Lens Antitrust Litigation, a sprawling antitrust case against the four largest manufacturers and largest distributor of contact lenses in the United States. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants conspired to impose minimum pricing policies that stifled discount competition and raised contact lens prices for consumers.

As part of the case, Steinberg and Giddings uncovered key evidence of a secret Facebook group that the defendants allegedly used to conspire. Steinberg and Giddings’ efforts to expose the Facebook group prompted the court to re-open discovery and bolstered the plaintiffs’ claims in advance of an upcoming trial.

In August 2019, Steinberg and Giddings presented the evidence they uncovered at a two-day summary judgment hearing. The court later denied the defendants’ summary judgment motions in full, citing much of the evidence that the pair had presented.

Steinberg and Giddings will be honored at a virtual awards ceremony on November 12. To see the full list of honorees, click here.