The Assessment Of Price Recommendations Made Via An Electronic Platform: Possible

Interestingly, in an obiter dictum, the FSC assessed the possible consequences of the fact that Pfizer had been contacted by certain retailers, who pressured the company to provide them with recommended prices. The FSC recalled that, from a competition law perspective, it is not only problematic if the supplier puts pressure on the retailers so that the latter follows its price recommendations, but also if retailers put pressure on the supplier to obtain price recommendations. The additional contact could lead to qualify the recommended price as an agreement properly so-called: such an agreement could exist where the retailers request price

A basic compliance measure relating to this obiter dictum is that a supplier should not follow without further ado the request for a price recommendation made by a retailer. In particular, the supplier should require the retailer to provide a factual and objectively comprehensible justification for the need of price recommendation and the request from the retailer should only be accepted if the justification is unobjectionable. In addition, the retailer should not have to waive its own pricing.(38)…