Vitamin Price-Fixing Settlement Opt-Outs Include Supplement Leaders
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
More than 200 companies, including a number of leaders in the dietary supplement industry, have decided not to participate in the $1.2 bil. vitamin price-fixing class action settlement.
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IVC Industries
Company reaches $12.7 mil. settlement with a defendant supplier in the federal vitamin price-fixing case, according to an SEC 10-Q filing. IVC agrees to release all claims against the unnamed supplier and opt out of the pending class action settlement ("The Tan Sheet" Nov. 29, 1999, p. 14). In exchange, the Freehold, N.J.-based firm receives $10 mil. (for an after-tax gain of $6 mil. in the fiscal first quarter ended Oct. 31), a 5% discount on future purchases of up to $1 mil. a year for three years, and an advance of $2.7 mil. contingent upon the class' final outcome. FY 2000 first quarter sales were $21.4 mil., down 26.8% from a year ago. The firm attributes the decline, in part, to lower private label sales