A Chicago-based medical technology company recently purchased by health care giant Baxter is facing an antitrust lawsuit brought by a rival that alleges it has a “stranglehold” on the hospital bed market.

In the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chicago, hospital bed-maker Linet alleges Hillrom, the main provider of hospital beds in the U.S., used “anti-competitive” practices to slow Linet’s growth in the U.S. market, including “coercing” hospital administrators into locking entire health systems into long-term agreements.

Hillrom, which the lawsuit calls a “serial abuser of antitrust laws,” makes up at least 70% of standard, intensive care and birthing beds installed in U.S. hospitals, according to the complaint.

“As COVID-19 cases and new variants continue to spread across the country, hospitals are overwhelmed and, in some areas, lack the beds necessary to treat critically ill patients, thereby creating an unprecedented spike in demand for the resources needed to save patients’ lives,” Linet Americas, a U.S.-based part of European company Linet Group, alleges in the lawsuit. “In the middle of this public health crisis stands Hillrom, the dominant supplier of hospital beds in the U.S.”

Hillrom was recently acquired by Deerfield-based Baxter International for $10.5 billion, plus the assumption of Hillrom’s debt. Baxter employed about 50,000 people globally before the acquisition. The lawsuit does not name Baxter as a defendant but alleges the merger, which closed this month, “bolsters Hillrom’s ability to steamroll competition.”

“This deal will further lessen competition in the hospital bed market and exacerbate the anti-competitive effects of Hillrom’s existing conduct by creating a ‘super bundler’ that would hold enormous power over hospitals across multiple product lines, including the full suite of technologically-integrated products that comprise the ‘smart’ hospital room of the future,” the complaint alleges.

In the 104-page complaint, Linet alleges Hillrom has “extinguish(ed) any meaningful challenge to its dominance” and “the severe consequences of that market reality are now reverberating throughout our public health system.”

In recent years, Hillrom and its parent companies have faced other hospital bed antitrust lawsuits that they have settled.

In this most recent one, Linet alleges Hillrom “coerced” large U.S. hospital systems into long-term, exclusive agreements called “Corporate Enterprise Agreements,” which amounted to the same type of agreement that had been challenged in previous litigation.

The agreements were a key part of a “monopoly broth” Hillrom created, which also included encouraging multiple Hillrom products to be purchased together and closing off enhanced features in its nurse call system to non-Hillrom beds, the suit alleges.

Failure to end Hillrom’s practices could mean rising health care costs, a halt to innovation and limited supply of hospital beds, Linet alleges.

“If Hillrom’s conduct is not enjoined, there will be profound consequences for our public health system going forward,” Linet alleges in the complaint. “The last remnants of competition in the hospital bed market will be wiped out and, with it, the voices of doctors and nurses across the country who are demanding choice and fair competition.”

An attorney for Linet, Julie Porter, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Baxter did not respond to a request for comment.

Linet is seeking damages, an order finding Hillrom violated antitrust laws, and to bar Hillrom from entering or enforcing corporate enterprise agreements. The company is also looking to bar Hillrom from preventing other beds from connecting to all features of Hillrom’s nurse call system, as long as the other beds can do so securely.

Linet is also asking for an order requiring Hillrom to give up profits it made from “illegal” conduct.