May 1st 2024
The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has upheld the penalty of £2.8 million imposed on Accord UK as fair and proportionate.
The penalty, which was imposed on Accord-UK – formerly Actavis UK, which took over the Auden Mckenzie business – took into account the seriousness of the agreement in which Auden bought off a potential rival to avoid it competing with its own version of the drug and to preserve Auden’s ability to increase prices.
This follows the CAT’s judgment in September 2023, which unanimously upheld the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) finding that the prices Auden/Actavis UK charged for hydrocortisone tablets between 2008 and 2018 were excessive and unfair, amounting to an abuse of a dominant position. This resulted in fines of almost £130 million.
In its 2021 decision, the CMA also found that Auden/Actavis agreed to make substantial monthly payments to AMCo in exchange for AMCo agreeing not to enter the market independently with its own 10mg hydrocortisone tablets between 2012 and 2016.
The CMA fined the parties a total of £106 million, and the parties appealed.
