Belgian Watchdog Fines Pharma Giants Over Anti-Competitive Practices in Pharmacies

The Belgian Competition Authority (BCA) has levied fines totaling over €11.2 million against pharma companies Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Haleon Belgium for their involvement in a long-running anti-competitive arrangement concerning the display of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines in pharmacies.

According to a statement from the BCA, the companies participated in a category management initiative called the Space Management Project (SMAN), which spanned more than 15 years. Although category management arrangements are not inherently illegal under competition law, the BCA found that this particular collaboration violated both Belgian and European Union competition rules.

Per the BCA’s statement, the SMAN project involved practices that undermined market competition. These included excluding rival products during the design and application of planograms—the layout guides used to organize product placement in pharmacies—as well as favoring their own offerings. The companies also monitored how these planograms were implemented across participating Belgian pharmacies.

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The authority concluded that the initiative amounted to a coordinated effort to manage and dominate shelf space for OTC medicines, thereby limiting competition and consumer choice. This restricted access for competitors’ products and potentially influenced purchasing behavior in a way that benefitted the participating firms disproportionately.

All three companies acknowledged their roles in the scheme and opted to settle, accepting the financial penalties proposed by the BCA’s Investigation and Prosecution Service. The fines imposed reflect the severity of the infringement and the extended duration of the agreement.

Source: Belgian Competition