Competition Comm rejects complaint against Sanofi India

The Competition Commission has dismissed allegations of unfair business practices made against pharmaceutical firm Sanofi India with respect to supply of medicines.
The complainant, who had sought confidentiality of his identity, had alleged that in order to provide regular supply of medicines, Sanofi was asking the distributors to provide various documents, including TPDD - Third Party Due Diligence - carried out by an independent agency.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) rejected the complaint after finding that the pharmaceutical firm did not violate Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act.
While Section 3 relates to anti-competitive agreements, Section 4 deals with abuse of dominant position.

"With regard to violation of the provisions of Section 3 of the (Competition) Act, the Commission could not find any agreement / understanding / arrangement which causes or is likely to cause appreciable adverse effect on competition," CCI said in an order dated July 19.
While examining allegations under Section 4, the regulator noted that apart from Sanofi, there are number of reputed firms having "good market share and goodwill" in the market, including Cipla, Lupin, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Cadila Healthcare, Torrent Pharmaceuticals and Sun Pharma Laboratories.
The regulator said as the main motive of the complainant is to sell drugs and pharmaceutical products, it can buy them from any manufacturer and supply in the market.

Sanofi "does not appear to be dominant in the market and in the absence of dominance, the question of abuse of dominance does not arise", CCI said.