On 8 September 2016, the General Court handed down a series of six much-anticipated judgments upholding the Commission’s 2013 Lundbeck decision, ruling for the first time that pharmaceutical pay-for-delay agreements breach EU competition law (cases T-472/13, T-460/13, T-467/13, T-469/13, T-470/13 and T-471/13). So-called “pay for delay” agreements typically involve a patent settlement agreement including a payment by the patentee to the generics in exchange for a cessation of patent infringement proceedings and an agreement by the generic companies to stay out of the market for a period of time.
George Peretz QC acted for the European Commission in T-467/13 Arrow v Commission.
Ben Rayment acted for the European Commission in T-471/13 Xellia and Alpharma v Commission.
Ronit Kreisberger and Ligia Osepciu acted for Merck in T-470/13 Merck KGaA v Commission and are acting for Merck in the Paroxetine Appeal in the CAT.
James Bourke acted for the European Commission in Case T-472/13 Lundbeck v Commission, Case T-469/13 Generics (UK) v Commission and Case T-470/13 Merck KGaA v Commission.
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