February ’22

The Board launched an investigation against four undertakings in the pharmaceutical industry to determine if they have infringed the law by way of horizontal and vertical agreements. Two of the undertakings, Deva and Haver, operate as manufacturers in the Turkish human pharmaceutical sector, whereas the other two undertakings, Gül and Sonuç, operate as pharmaceutical warehouses that carry out distribution activities in the hospital channel. The allegations include that Deva, Haver, Gül and Sonuç established an organisation that engaged in anti-competitive activities, particularly in the procurement of medicines by public hospitals and in the relevant sector in general.

The Board stated that:

• while Deva and Haver operate as manufacturers in the generic drug production market, Sonuç and Gül operate as pharmaceutical warehouses in the drug distribution market. In other words, Deva and Haver are competitors at the manufacturing level, whereas Sonuç and Gül are competitors at the distribution level.
• The documents obtained included communications between Sonuç and Gül which included statements such as “don’t let the hospitals get between us”, which indicates a mutual intention to prevent price competition in hospital sales and to determine the price of the pharmaceutical subject to sale.

The Board concluded that Sonuç and Gül determined commercial factors, such as the sales price for pharmaceuticals and sales and marketing conditions, outside of competitive market dynamics and against the dynamics of effective competition and decided to impose an administrative monetary fine of approximately EUR 294,000 on Sonuç and approximately EUR 90,000 on Gül. The Board found that Deva and Haver did not engage in any infringement of the law and therefore did not impose an administrative monetary fine on them.