The Belgian Competition Authority has fined Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Boehringer Ingelheim and Haleon for jointly setting up a space management project (category management arrangement) for the placement of over the counter (OTC) medicines in pharmacies. While a category management arrangement between a single supplier and a retailer may be acceptable in principle, it becomes significantly more sensitive when it involves multiple suppliers that are, presumably, competitors.

According to the BCA, this space management project between these competitors had the following anti-competitive traits in breach of the competition rules:

• The exclusion of (products of) competitors in the design and implementation of the planograms used for the placement of OTC medicines in pharmacies.
• The favouring of own products in the design and implementation of the planograms in question.
• The monitoring of the agreements and of the implementation of the planograms in the relevant pharmacies.

This is the first time competition law rules have been applied to category management arrangements in this fashion.

The full text of the decision will shortly be available on the BCA’s website.

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨? Read the BCA’s press release in English, Dutch and French on our LinkedIn.

Further questions on the application of competition law rules to category management arrangements? You can read the 2010 opinion of the French competition authority on the subject via the following link: https://lnkd.in/ej-GW89c, or get in touch with your contact person at 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭.

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