TEMPE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Align Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALGN), a leading global medical device company that designs, manufactures, and sells the Invisalign® System of clear aligners, iTero™ intraoral scanners, and exocad™ CAD/CAM software for digital orthodontics and restorative dentistry, today announced that on August 21, 2023, the Superior Court, State of California, County of Santa Clara issued an order granting Align’s petition to confirm and denying SmileDirectClub LLC (“SDC”) petition to vacate a $63 million arbitration award entered in favor of Align.
By way of background, on August 27, 2020, Align initiated a confidential arbitration proceeding against SDC before the American Arbitration Association relating to a Supply Agreement (“Supply Agreement”) entered into between the parties in 2016. Align’s complaint alleged that SDC breached the Supply Agreement’s terms, causing damages to Align. On January 19, 2021, SDC filed a counterclaim alleging that Align breached the Supply Agreement and on May 3, 2022, SDC filed an additional counterclaim alleging that Align breached the Supply Agreement. We denied SDC’s allegations in the counterclaims. The arbitration hearing on our claims and SDC’s first counterclaim was held on July 18-27, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois.
On October 27, 2022, the arbitrator issued an interim award on our claims and SDC’s first counterclaim finding that SDC breached the Supply Agreement, and that we did not breach the Supply Agreement. The arbitrator awarded Align an interim award in the amount of $63 million, the maximum under the Supply Agreement’s liability cap.