17Aug2010
The General Court’s Judgment In AstraZeneca, Lessons For Market Definition And Dominance Analysis
On July 1, 2010, the European General Court rendered its judgment in the AstraZeneca case, dismissing for the most part AstraZeneca’s appeal against the Commission’s infringement decision of June 2005. In that decision, the Commission had found AstraZeneca’s Losec to be dominant in the market for proton pump inhibitors, a type of medicine used for the treatment of ulcers and other gastrointestinal problems. The Commission held that AstraZeneca had abused that dominant position in two ways: (1) by providing patent authorities misleading launch date information when applying for a special protection certificate for Losec and (2) by withdrawing its marketing registration for an olde [...]
