Legal issues
In March 2019, the company paid $231 million to the United States Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to settle allegations of civil bribery to obtain business in 13 countries, including Angola, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and Spain.
As part of the settlement the company agreed to retain an independent corporate compliance monitor for at least two years.
In March 2023, the company was certified by the monitor that its compliance program is reasonably designed and implemented to detect and prevent violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The certification was accepted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Department of Justice.
In July 2022, the US Department of Justice joined a civil lawsuit against Fresenius Medical Care, alleging that a unit of the company, Fresenius Vascular Care, violated the federal False Claims Act and engaged in fraud by performing unnecessary procedures on dialysis patients that "exposed patients to grave risks" and then billing Medicare and other insurance providers for them from January 2012 to June 2018. The lawsuit includes 19 US states and was originally filed in 2014 in New York.
In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating Fresenius Medical Care along with DaVita under allegations they use illegal tactics to push smaller companies out of the market.
In May 2025, the benefits fund of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Fresenius Medical Care and DaVita Inc., another dialysis provider, alleging that the two companies illegally conspired to inflate treatment costs for dialysis patients by billions of dollars.
