The Bundeskartellamt has imposed a fine totalling 10.34 million Euros against Bayer Vital GmbH, the German pharmaceuticals distributor of Bayer group. Bayer Vital has influenced in an anticompetitive manner the resale prices of non-prescription medicines sold in pharmacies.

Since 2004 pharmacies have been free to set their own prices for non-prescription pharmaceuticals (unless, in exceptional cases, costs are reimbursed by health insurance funds). Against this background, agreements between the manufacturer and the retailer, i.e. the pharmacy, which are aimed at influencing the sales price, are inadmissible. However, Bayer Vital has concluded so-called target agreements with several pharmacies in which inter alia they were promised an additional discount for “positioning Bayer products as premium products”. To obtain this “partnership bonus” the pharmacies had to essentially observe Bayer Vital’s non-binding price recommendation; time-limited price campaigns were tolerated, but not permanently low prices.

In calculating the fine the Bundeskartellamt took into account the fact that the company had cooperated with the authority following the search and thus been of considerable assistance in the fact-finding process. Another aspect which helped to reduce the fine was the fact that the company had voluntarily discontinued its inadmissible conduct. Bayer Vital has announced its acceptance of the fine.

In the Bundeskartellamt’s view the pharmacists who have concluded target agreements with Bayer Vital have also committed an administrative offence; this applies to about 11,000 of the approx. 21,000 German pharmacists. However, as this is a minor accusation applying to each individual pharmacist, no prosecution proceedings have been brought against them.