AGCM

The Italian Competition Authority (ICA), at its meeting of 21 December 2016, concluded the investigations launched against major companies active in the provision of Home Oxygen Therapy (HOT) and Home Mechanical Ventilation (HMV). The investigations found that three separate agreements were put in place on occasion of the call for tender issued by ASL Milano 1, ASUR Marche and SORESA for the provision of HMV in part of the province of Milan, HMV and HOT in the Marche region and HOT in the Campania region, respectively.

The ICA ascertained that the companies Linde Medicale S.r.l., Medicair Italia S.r.l., Medigas Italia S.r.l., Sapio Life S.r.l., Vitalaire Italia S.p.A. and Vivisol S.r.l. established an agreement restricting competition on occasion of the four calls for tender issued between 2012 and 2014 by or on behalf of the ASL Milano 1 Health Unit, for the provision of HMV to patients resident in the area covered by this Health Unit, thus infringing antitrust legislation. The agreement was aimed at maintaining the HMV service prices artificially high and crystallising the market, so as to ensure a balance in the positioning of the various providers and preventing the entry of new ones.

The ICA also ascertained that Linde Medicale S.r.l., Medicair Centro S.r.l., Sapio Life S.r.l., Vitalaire Italia S.p.A. and Vivisol S.r.l. coordinated their trading strategies on occasion of the call for tender issued in 2010 by ASUR Marche for the provision of HMV and HOT to patients resident in the region, thus hampering mutual effective competition until July 2014, in infringement of antitrust legislation.

Finally, the ICA ascertained that the Linde Medicale S.r.l., Medicair Sud S.r.l., Eubios S.r.l., Oxy Live S.r.l., Ossigas S.r.l., Magaldi Life S.r.l., Ter.gas. S.r.l., Vitalaire Italia S.p.A., Vivisol Napoli S.r.l. established a coordination strategy aimed at maintaining the HOT service price artificially high in Campania, hindering the launch of a public call for tender for the HOT service in Campania, as well as preventing effective competition in the tender announced by SORESA in 2014. Such conducts were considered to be detrimental to competition protection legislation.

Therefore, the ICA decided to impose the following sanctions, for an overall total including the three separate infringements, equal to approximately € 47 million, as follows:

The companies involved have been notified today of the sanctions.

Rome, 19 January 2017