The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered CVS Caremark this week to comply with a Federal Trade Commission civil investigative demand filed in December 2023. It means the company will have to share with the FTC documents, data, and explanations for specific actions around its anticompetitive behavior in managing its pharmacies. CVS has tried to delay, distract from, and quash the investigation into its abuses several times. This week’s court order means it can no longer use bad-faith arguments to wriggle out of the antitrust investigation.
FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson touted the order as "a big win for Americans" in a post on X. "I have long said that if firms do not cooperate with our investigations, we should take them to court. The law is clear: Complying with our orders is mandatory," he said.
The FTC issues CIDs as an early step in its investigations of companies to evaluate whether they have violated laws or regulations and is not required to provide evidence of a violation before it issues a CID. Still, this court order means the agency can move forward in uncovering the PBM’s wrongdoing. The FTC will undoubtedly have plenty of concerning documents to sift through.
