Brussels, 24/10/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission sent a statement of objections to the American company Intercontinental Marketing Services Health (IMS), world leader for the collection of data on prescriptions and sales pharmaceutical products, for abuse of dominant position. Present in certain countries and strong from a turnover of USD 1.4 billion in 1999, IMS offers precious information to pharmaceutical laboratories in order to assess the market share of their medicines compared to their competitors and the performance of their medical representatives. During its investigation, the Commission noted that IMS made the sale of certain services subject to the prior purchase of other of its services, either on a single geographic market or on different geographic markets. Furthermore, the company offered, to certain client pharmaceutical laboratories, discounts said for "loyalty" and global or international discounts that are not founded, according to it, on objective or transparent criteria. If such practices are not, in themselves, attacks against free competition, they become so when the company in question is dominant on the market, underlined the Commission spokesperson responsible for the dossier, as the falsify competition between rival operators and form a significant barrier for potential entrants. The complaints from a European (Source Information Belgium) and an American (National Data Corporation) companies are, at a first glance perfectly founded.
The statement of objections opens a procedure and does not constitute the final verdict. IMS has two months to answer the Commission objections. If the Commission concerns are confirmed, IMS will have to modify certain clauses of its contracts and review it discount policy, indicated Commissioner Monti.