Evaluating Disparaging Practices Against Competitors In The Pharmaceutical Sector: A Competition Law Perspective

The competition investigation initiated by the European Commission (the "Commission") against Vifor Pharma on June 20, 2022, has attracted attention due to the fact that this is the first investigation in which the act of disparaging competitors will be considered as a violation of competition law alone. Competition investigations launched against pharmaceutical companies by the Commission and the competition authorities of the member states in recent years relating to the abuse of dominant position through disparagement have shown that disparagement activities, which were previously evaluated under unfair competition law, can also be dealt with in the competition law dimension.