October 6, 2026 News

Ninth Circuit Revives Invisalign Antitrust Class Actions Against Align Technology

Berger Montague, a leading national plaintiff law firm, secured a significant appellate victory on October 5, 2026, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment in favor of Align Technology, Inc., the maker of Invisalign clear aligners.

“This is an important win for the dentists and patients who allege they paid more for Invisalign because Align shut out competition,” said Joshua P. Davis, Shareholder and Co-Chair of Berger Montague’s Appeals & Complex Briefing Department. “The Ninth Circuit recognized that whether Align’s stated reasons for cutting off a rival were pretextual, and whether they in fact benefitted competition, are questions for a jury, not ones to be decided on summary judgment, and we look forward to presenting that evidence at trial.”

The decision revives two certified class actions, one on behalf of dentists who purchased Invisalign directly from Align and one on behalf of consumers who purchased clear aligners indirectly, alleging that Align unlawfully monopolized the markets for clear aligners and intraoral scanners. The cases now return to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for trial.

Plaintiffs allege that Align, which they contend controls approximately 90 percent of the U.S. clear aligner market, terminated a 2015 interoperability agreement with rival scanner maker 3Shape in 2017, cutting off 3Shape’s TRIOS intraoral scanners from Invisalign workflows. Plaintiffs further allege that Align used anticompetitive discounting, bundling, and exclusivity agreements to restrict competition in both markets. Align argued that it ended the arrangement for legitimate reasons related to patent litigation, but the Ninth Circuit held that plaintiffs presented sufficient evidence that factual disputes over Align’s true motivation, and the effect of its actions on competition, preclude summary judgment.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the American Antitrust Institute filed amicus briefs supporting the plaintiffs on appeal, and the Department of Justice also participated in oral argument.

Additional Information

Case: Simon and Simon, PC v. Align Technology, Inc., U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Read the opinion here.
9th Circ. Revives Antitrust Suits Against Invisalign, Law360 (October 5, 2026)
Previous release: Ninth Circuit Looks Open to Sending Invisalign Antitrust Suit to Trial
For more information about the case, visit bergermontague.com/align

Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With more than $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, DC; and Wilmington, DE.

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