Parallel trade of pharmaceutical products: the ECJ finally speaks – comment on GlaxoSmithKline

Abstract:
This article reviews the ECJ's judgement in GlaxoSmithKline that overturned some important findings of the CFI's decision. It criticises the longstanding problematic distinction between anti-competitive object and effect and, in particular, whether distribution agreements that limit parallel trade fit into the category of agreement having an anti-competitive object. Given that the ECJ's decision reasserted a multi-goal approach to EU competition law, it is argued that the judgment leaves some issues unresolved. Similarly, the issues of the effects of price regulation and research and development (R&D) funding have not been dealt with adequately.