Henry Schein settles anti-trust suit by e-commerce company

Global health care products distributor Henry Schein Inc. said Tuesday it had agreed to settle a 2015 antitrust lawsuit filed by an Arizona e-commerce company.

The Melville company said the settlement will result in a 4 cents per share charge to its second-quarter 2017 results. Based on 79.47 million shares outstanding on April 1, the settlement would have a value of $3.2 million.

Melville-based Henry Schein denied wrongdoing and said it settled “solely to avoid further distraction and cost.” The company declined to comment further.

SourceOne Dental Inc., based in Chandler, Arizona, filed the September 2015 lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Central Islip against Henry Schein and two other major distributors, saying that they conspired to undermine its efforts to organize groups of dentists and sell to them online.

The lawsuit said the defendants, which account for “approximately 90 percent of all sales in this market,” formed an “oligopoly” that charges higher prices in part by resisting dentists’ efforts to form group purchasing organizations.

A SourceOne executive declined to comment.

Shares of Henry Schein were unchanged at $182.87 on the Nasdaq Stock Market after the company disclosed the settlement.

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Also named in the SourceOne lawsuit were Patterson Companies Inc., based in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Benco Dental Supply Co., based in Pittston, Pennsylvania. A Patterson Dental spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment. A Benco spokeswoman also did not immediately return a call for comment.

Starting in January 2016, several other class action complaints were filed after the SourceOne lawsuit, saying that Henry Schein, Patterson and Benco conspired to fix prices and use their market power to stop manufacturers from dealing with their competitors, Henry Schein said in a government filing.

Henry Schein, with operations or affiliates in 32 countries, posted revenue of $11.6 billion in 2016, making it Long Island’s largest public company by sales. The company has more than 21,000 employees and also distributes products to the offices of doctors and veterinarians.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.