The court held that its instruction, “Whether the claims were false or fraudulent is not for you to decide,” made clear that the jury was not to decide the element of falsity.

U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois denied motions for a new trial on damages and for judgment as a matter of law in a lawsuit alleging the defendant pharmacies’ price match guarantee resulted in violations of the False Claims Act (FCA). The court found it did not make any errors in its jury instructions regarding the elements of the FCA in question and that legally sufficient evidence supported the verdict (U.S. ex rel. Schutte v. SuperValu, Inc., No. 3:11-cv-03290-SEM (C.D. Ill. Oct. 31, 2025)).

Price match. The SuperValu pharmacies offered a price match guarantee under which pharmacy personnel replaced the pharmacies’ then-current, reported cash retail price with a lower competitor price. The pharmacies advertised the practice of matching competitor prices on prescription drugs, and its advertisements were disseminated to the public through various means, including in-store and pharmacy signage, fliers, circulars, in-store audio announcements, mailers, newspapers of general circulation, on the back of store receipts, and the pharmacies’ websites.

The relators alleged the price match program was a stealthy discount program and a direct response to Wal-Mart’s discount prescription drug program. The relators also argued the price match program was available to anyone who...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi7AFBVV95cUxPdGFwem1YaUtuYVZuM2ZpOGVZ...