SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—A federal appeals court late on May 14 stopped a Utah law that would have banned contact lens manufacturers from using Unilateral Pricing Policies to set minimum retail prices on certain products. The law, scheduled to go into effect in Utah on Tuesday May 12, 2015, was halted yesterday, May 14, 2015, by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. At stake is control of the roughly $4 billion contact lens market with some 38 million American customers.

Alcon, Bausch + Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson Vision Care asserted that the Utah law is unconstitutional and succeeded in federal appeals court yesterday to have it stopped while their appeal is considered. Alcon told VMail, “We are pleased that the court has provided this temporary relief while it assesses our appeal. Alcon believes the Utah law violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and is hopeful the Court will overturn the previous ruling.” Utah's state attorneys declined to comment.

The order, issued late Wednesday, puts the Utah law on hold as a legal challenge plays out. It reverses a lower court ruling from U.S. District Judge Dee Benson for the District of Utah, who had allowed the law to go into effect on Wednesday based on his opinion that the “plaintiffs have failed to satisfy the court that they have met the requirements for a preliminary injunction” and “the court is not persuaded at this stage in the litigation that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits.”

Bills similar to Utah’s anti-UPP law were also introduced in 14 other states, and while some remain pending, others have failed. (See “What’s the Status of State Bills Opposing UPP Policies?”) In addition, in related lawsuits, Costco Wholesale Corp. filed an anti-trust lawsuit in a California federal court against Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, and at least 15 anti-UPP class action lawsuits have also been filed in states throughout the country, as reported by VMail.