TR III - Prescription markets: Can competition law deal with the principal/agent issue? (New Frontiers of Antitrust Conference - Paris, 10 February 2012)

This third roundtable of the conference “New frontiers of Antitrust”, Paris, 10 February 2012, was dedicated to prescription markets and how competition law can deal with the principal/agent issue. This article considers how the phenomena described by economists as “prescription” should be taken into account in competition law analysis. While this area is well explored in economic literature, it is relatively uncharted ground in competition law. The note gives a brief overview of the relevant economic theories and analyses how these theories were taken into account in competition cases in pharmaceutical sector and in cases involving text books. The phenomenon of prescription does not pose any competition problems in itself. While prescription may be relevant to market definition, it appears to be less relevant to the theory of harm. Overall, it appears that the current framework of competition analysis is sufficiently attuned to address any issues raised by prescription markets.