On October 21, 2026, Judge Patti B. Saris of the District of Massachusetts granted in part and denied in part a medical device company’s (“Defendant”) motion for summary judgment in United States ex rel. Langer v. Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., No. 21-cv-11293-PBS (D. Mass. Oct. 21, 2026). Relator alleged that Defendant’s commission-based payments to independent contractor sales representatives violated the Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) and thereby the False Claims Act (“FCA”). The court rejected Relator’s broad reading of the AKS but held that a jury could still find that the Defendant violated the statute. It then allowed the FCA claims to proceed under the AKS’s “resulting from” pathway but not on a false certification theory.

(more…)