The Court ruled that Article 82 EC should be interpreted as meaning that a company that occupies a dominant position in the pharmaceutical market abusively exploits this dominant position when it refuses to fill orders from wholesalers in an effort to curtail parallel exports from wholesalers to other member states.
Even though the ruling hit the pharmaceutical industry hard, the decision does confirm that a pharmaceutical manufacturer should be able to defend their own commercial interests when they are facing abnormally large orders. The fact that the court determined that the laboratories are not obligated to offer excessive quantities of their products has been positively interpreted by the pharmaceutical industry.
More information:
http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=ES&Submit=Rechercher$docrequire=alldocs&numaff=C-472/06&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100
For further information, please contact Eric Jordi Cubells: [email protected]