Lisbon, July 24, 2024 (Lusa) - The Competition Authority (AdC) has sentenced a business association and five laboratory groups operating in Portugal to fines of €48,610,000 for their involvement in a cartel for clinical analyses and Covid-19 tests between 2016 and 2022.
In a statement, the Competition Authority said that the fine was imposed on the 17th and that the cartel in question, established by the laboratories and with the participation of the sector association, aimed to set prices and the geographical distribution of the Portuguese market for the provision of clinical analyses and Covid-19 tests.
‘The consultation between the five laboratories will have allowed them to increase their negotiating power vis-à-vis the public and private entities with which they have negotiated the supply of clinical analyses and Covid-19 tests, leading to the setting of prices and commercial conditions that are potentially more favourable than those that would result from individual negotiations within the scope of the normal functioning of the market, preventing or postponing the revision and reduction of prices,’ the Competition Authority said.
According to the Competition Authority, the collection points and the capacity for mass Covid-19 testing represented a fundamental complement to the efforts made by the health service (SNS) to combat the pandemic in Portugal.
By 30 March 2022, more than 40 million tests had been carried out in Portugal.
The Competition Authority's decision was preceded by two condemnations in the same case, adopted on 21 and 26 December 2023, which resulted from two multinational laboratory groups using the settlement procedure.
By adhering to the settlement procedure, these companies refrained from contesting the Competition Authority's imputation. They voluntarily paid the fines imposed, totalling €8,900,000, opting to collaborate with the investigation and provide the Competition Authority with relevant evidence of the anti-competitive practices in question.
One of the companies that used the settlement procedure also benefited from an additional fine reduction under the Leniency Programme.
The Competition Authority explained that the settlement procedure is a procedural instrument that aims to adopt decisions more quickly and effectively, promote the public interest by saving resources, reduce litigation, and strengthen general prevention. It is based on the cooperation of the target and the respective reward through a reduction in the fine.
For the Competition Authority, the facts show that the laboratory groups wanted to promote a general price increase, changing the paradigm of price determination, which is focused on sustainability.
According to the Competition Authority, from March 2020 onwards, the targeted laboratories agreed on prices for supplying Covid tests to SNS and ADSE users and imposed them in negotiations with the government.
‘The laboratories in question also threatened the government with a boycott of the supply of Covid tests in retaliation for the reductions of the agreed prices,’ the Competition Authority added.
Amid the pandemic and in an attempt to coordinate efforts to respond to it, the government once again needed to turn to private laboratories to start implementing mass testing in schools and crèches in February 2021.
At the time, the companies coordinated a price that was higher than expected based on their own commercial interests.
The five laboratories not only fixed the prices of the Covid tests but also shared the schools' market with them, the Competition Authority added.
According to the Competition Authority, the laboratories continued to behave in such a way as setting prices, boycotting the provision of services, and exchanging sensitive commercial information in the context of providing clinical analyses and Covid tests with the SNS, ADSE, and private insurers.
FC/ADB // ADB.
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