The Italian Supreme Administrative Court qualifies the independence criteria applicable to the agent pursuant to EU law upholding the appeal filed by a pharmaceutical company to revoke an antitrust fine imposed by the Italian Antitrust Authority (AstraZeneca)

Upholding the appeal filed by the claimant AstraZeneca, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (hereinafter also the “Court”) ruled that the illicit conduct of the agent Pan Service - operating in the market for several principals and bearing all the related economical and financial risks - which had taken part in an anticompetitive agreement, thereby breaching Article 81 of the European Community Treaty, is not attributable to the principal. More specifically, on 26 April 2006 the Italian Antitrust Authority [1] ascertained that a restrictive agreement was in place between 1998 and - at least - 2001 which was designed to restrict competition between the main operators in the Italian disinfectants and antiseptics market in the context of a public tender procedure. The reasoning of the