TY - CHAP

T1 - Temporary Dominance and Excessive Pharmaceutical Pricing – CD Pharma (Denmark)

AU - Kianzad, Behrang

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - On 31 January 2018, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority adopted a decision that found the Swedish company CD Pharma, a generic distributor, to be in breach of Article 102(a) TFEU due to having abused its dominant position and imposed excessive and unfair prices for the drug Syntocinon. The company had increased the price of the drug by 2000% on the Danish market in the period April 2014-October 2014. CD Pharma appealed to the Danish Competition Appeals Board, which upheld the decision made by the Authority on 29 November 2018. On subsequent appeal to the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court, the judgment by the previous court was upheld in a 3-2 decision on 2 March 2020, thus finding CD Pharma liable for infringement of Danish Competition Law as well as Article 102(a) TFEU. That decision is final and no further appeals are possible. The case raises unresolved legal-economic issues regarding excessive pricing, such as the definition of the relevant market in pharmaceutical cases, the length of the abuse, competitive price benchmarks, definition of economic value and the matter of dominance in public procurement and tenders.

AB - On 31 January 2018, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority adopted a decision that found the Swedish company CD Pharma, a generic distributor, to be in breach of Article 102(a) TFEU due to having abused its dominant position and imposed excessive and unfair prices for the drug Syntocinon. The company had increased the price of the drug by 2000% on the Danish market in the period April 2014-October 2014. CD Pharma appealed to the Danish Competition Appeals Board, which upheld the decision made by the Authority on 29 November 2018. On subsequent appeal to the Danish Maritime and Commercial Court, the judgment by the previous court was upheld in a 3-2 decision on 2 March 2020, thus finding CD Pharma liable for infringement of Danish Competition Law as well as Article 102(a) TFEU. That decision is final and no further appeals are possible. The case raises unresolved legal-economic issues regarding excessive pricing, such as the definition of the relevant market in pharmaceutical cases, the length of the abuse, competitive price benchmarks, definition of economic value and the matter of dominance in public procurement and tenders.

U2 - 10.4337/9781802204414.00018

DO - 10.4337/9781802204414.00018

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781802204407

T3 - New Horizons in Competition Law and Economics series

SP - 124

EP - 137

BT - EU Competition Law and Pharmaceuticals

A2 - Sauter, Wolf

A2 - Canoy, Marcel

A2 - Mulder, Jotte

PB - Edward Elgar Publishing

ER -