ORDINE DEI MEDICI CHIRURGHI E ODONTOIATRI
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
A fine has been imposed on the Italian Federation of Physicians
On 27 September 2000 the Competition Authority resolved that the National Federation of Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists, and 37 Provincial Associations of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists, and the Trento Provincial branches of the Italian Association and Dentists and the National Association of Italian Dentists had acted unlawfully in violation of section 2(2) of the Competition and Fair Trading Act.
Arguing on the basis of the firmly established principle for the purposes of applying competition legislation, that professionals are to be considered as equivalent to firms, and their professional associations as associations of undertakings, the Authority ruled that the following were agreements that restricted competition on the basis of its findings:
(1) the resolutions issued by the National Federation of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists of 1985 and 1997 which stipulated the conditions for concluding contractual agreements between physicians and entities for the providing supplementary healthcare services;
(2) the resolutions issued by 35 Provincial Associations of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists Proposing the same conditions to be applied at the provincial level, in implementation of the resolution adopted by the National Federation;
(3) the decisions taken by the Trent sections of the associations belonging to the Italian Association of Dentists and the National Association of Italian Dentists, laying down a uniform discount to be granted by the members of the Associations as the condition for concluding conventions with the local health authority.
The resolutions of the National Federation of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists and the Provincial Associations of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists were designed to prevent competition between doctors in their relations with the entities providing supplementary healthcare services. In particular, these resolutions were designed to limit the freedom of these entities to choose the number of professionals and the types of professionals with whom to conclude agreements. One way of achieving this was to impose the so-called "open list" principle, which obliged the supplementary health service providers to conclude contracts with all the professionals whose names were supplied by the Association. In the final phase of investigation, the National Federation of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists adopted a new resolution replacing the previous ones, but this is still failed to remove these violations.
Considering the locomotive role played by the National Federation of Physicians Surgeons and Dentists on the conduct of the individual Provincial Associations, the Authority imposed a fine of 122.6 million lire on the National Federation.
Rome, 6 October 2000