Memo: Antitrust: Commission welcomes Court of Justice judgment in the AstraZeneca case

The European Commission welcomes today's judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-457/10 P) dismissing an appeal brought by AstraZeneca against the judgment by the General Court of 2010 which had upheld – to a very large extent - a Commission's decision from 2005.

The Commission had fined AstraZeneca €60 million for abusing its dominant position relating to its best-selling anti-ulcer medicine Losec. The Court of Justice ruled for the first time on a Commission decision on the abuse of a dominant market position in the pharmaceutical sector. Today's judgment is significant as it clarifies a number of issues of principle in relation to market definition, dominance and the concept of an abuse in the meaning of Article 102 TFEU.

In particular, it confirms that misuses of regulatory procedures can in certain circumstances constitute abuses of a dominant position within the meaning of EU antitrust rules (Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union). The judgment also confirms the Commission's method to define the relevant product market and existence of a dominant position in the pharmaceutical sector.