Germany: The Bundeskartellamt considers the rebate system of a pharmaceutical company to be equivalent to the exclusive distribution agreement that it has already prohibited (Merck)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. – Bundeskartellamt, Decision of 19 May 2011, case B 3 - 139/10 - Merck Rebate schemes are a widespread form of price discrimination used by dominant firms to foreclose competitors. The European Commission has already taken a number of decisions in relation to such practices, notably in proceedings against Michelin, British Airways, Tomra and Intel. However, price discrimination may also raise the problem of divergent conditions of competition on the markets of customers or suppliers. This is, according to the Bundeskartellamt, the case of the rebate system introduced by the pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck KGaA of Darmstadt, Germany ("Merck"). Therefore, in