Align Technology Shares Drop 4% Amid EU Antitrust Investigation

Shares of Align Technology are moving lower after the European Commission said it has opened a formal antitrust investigation to assess whether the company breached European Union competition rules by tying its intra-oral scanners to its dental clear aligners. "This investigation, which follows a complaint by a competitor, is the first formal antitrust investigation in the medical devices sector," the agency said in a statement. The commission is "concerned that Align Technology may have unfairly leveraged its market-leading Invisalign clear aligners, by effectively forcing dental professionals to purchase the iTero scanner if they wish to order Invisalign for their patients." The investigation focuses on Align's "restrictive interoperability strategy," the agency said, citing the company's refusal to approve competing scanners for the automated submission to Align of digital scans for Invisalign orders since 2017 and refusal to accept dental professionals' submissions of scans generated by other intra-oral scanners. Shares of Align Technology are down 4%, or $6.21, to $167.22 in midday trading.