FEDERFARMA TERAMO
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
ANTITRUST AUTHORITY OPENS INVESTIGATION INTO FEDERFARMA OF TERAMO
OVER ALLEGED ANTI-COMPETITIVE CONDUCT
The association told its member pharmacists the maximum discounts to apply to over-the-counter drugs
The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 24 May 2007, decided to open an investigation into Federfarma of Teramo over alleged anti-competitive conduct.
The investigation, to be carried out in close collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza (Customs and ExcisePolice), follows a letter sent to all the owners of member pharmacies in which Federfarma of Teramo indicated the maximum discounts to be applied to the selling price of a series of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals (SOP). These are pharmaceutical products that can be sold through channels other than pharmacies (basically in supermarkets and drugstores). Based on the 2007 Budget, their shelf price is to be freely determined by each retailer, with the proviso of a maximum price for a transition period.
In the Authority’s view, Federfarma Teramo’s instructions as to the maximum discounts to apply constitute an “agreement” within the meaning of the Antitrust rules: the chart limiting the size of discounts on SOP pharmaceuticals to predetermined maximum values introduces to all effects and purposes an agreed mechanism for the fixing of prices, thus encouraging uniformity of prices in pharmacies throughout the Province of Teramo. This would seem to be a large-scale agreement in that, on the one hand, pharmacies overall are at present by far the most prevalent sales channel for SOP pharmaceuticals; on the other, Federfarma Teramo must be considered the association most representative of the pharmacies operating in the Province of Teramo.
Rome, 29 May 2007