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On 4 March 2021, the European Commission (
Commission) opened a formal investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct by the pharmaceutical company Teva. The Commission suspects Teva of having deployed a strategy with the intention of delaying the market entry of generic drugs that competed with Teva’s originator drug Copaxone. This may have amounted to an abuse of a dominant position prohibited under Art. 102 TFEU, the Commission states in its press release.
While the Commission has sanctioned patent settlements that delay the market entry of generic drugs (“pay-for-delay”) in a number of cases, with this new investigation, the Commission is exploring two novel “theories of harm”. The authority is concerned that Teva’s patent filing practices – namely the filing and selective withdrawal of divisional patents – and communication measures impeded the market entry of generic drugs.
December 21, 2020
The General Court of the European Union (“
General Court”) delivered three Judgments on 16 December 2020 which confirmed different aspects of the scope of the powers enjoyed by the European Commission (“
the Commission”) in its application of competition rules in the European Union (“
EU”). In a nutshell, the General Court has confirmed that the Commission:
is entitled to apply competition rules to sports activities;
has a very wide discretion in determining whether or not there is sufficient “Community interest” for it to pursue an infringement action under Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (“
TFEU”); and