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South African pharmaceutical manufacturers successfully defend their distribution system

The South African Competition Tribunal has dismissed an application for interim relief by nine pharmaceutical wholesalers, who claimed that the use by GSK, Pfizer and Aspen Pharmacare of their own agency distributor, Kinesis, was anti-competitive, perpetrating a range of restrictive practices. We assisted the defendants in successfully arguing that, to the contrary, their agreements with Kinesis were entirely consistent with competitive distribution. The Competition Tribunal agreed in very robust terms that the vertical relationships were the result of competitive pressures towards efficient distribution, rather than any anti-competitive behaviour in the market.

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