The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) dismissed the appeals lodged by generic manufacturers who had entered into ‘pay for delay’ agreements with the pharmaceutical group Servier aimed at delaying the entry onto the EU market of generics competing with perindopril, a medicine used to treat certain heart diseases, in a ruling handed down on Thursday 27 June (joined cases C-144/19, C-151/19, C-166/19, C-176/19, C-197/19, C-198/19 and C-201/19).
Generic manufacturers Lupin, Niche Generics, Unichem Laboratories, Matrix (now Mylan), Teva and Biogaran are challenging the General Court of the EU’s rulings of December 2018 that partially upheld the infringement of the agreements restricting competition that they entered into with Servier (see EUROPE 12158/32).
These companies therefore remain liable for the individual fines imposed on them in 2014 by the Commission (see EUROPE 11118/22), with the fine on Matrix reduced from €79 million to €55 million. With regard to the agreement between Servier and Lupin, the Court reduced the fine from €37.1 million to €34.7 million, finding that the General Court had erred in approving the duration to be taken into account for the purposes of determining the fine.
At the same time, the Commission is challenging the annulment by the General Court of its decision finding that the Servier group had abused its dominant position and of the agreements concluded between it and Krka (cases C-207/19 and C-164/19).
The CJEU accepted the Commission’s conclusions and held that the reasons given by the General Court for invalidating the Commission's definition of the relevant market were incorrect.
It is also of the view that the General Court committed several errors of law in holding that two of the three agreements concluded between Servier and Krka did not constitute a restriction of competition. In order for this case to reach a final decision, it has been referred to the General Court for a ruling on the third agreement between Servier and Krka.
To see the judgments of the Court of Justice: https://aeur.eu/f/cu4 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)