Italy’s Antitrust Authority slams three global med-tech giants with $7.4 million fine

August 10, 2011 By MassDevice staff Leave a Comment

Italy’s Antitrust Authority slammed three global medical giants with a $7.4 million fine on allegations of conspiracy to control the supply of certain medical devices to an Italian health care company.

Philips SpA took the brunt of the penalty with nearly $5.6 million dollars, followed by Siemens SpA (NYSE:SI) with $1.6 million and trailed by Toshiba Medical Systems Italia Srl with $202,000 in fines.

A fourth party, diagnostic imaging services provider Alliance Medical Srl, was fined about $59,000, Law360.com reported.

Investigation into the companies began when GE Medical Systems Italia SpA filed a complaint alleging that the four companies had conspired to coordinate bidding efforts to land a supply contract with Societa Regionale Sanita of Campania.

Siemens and Alliance joined forces to provide medical imaging machines and subcontracted Philips and Toshiba to provide other rental machines, according to the Antitrust Authority.

Siemens ranked 4th on the MassDevice Big 100 list of the world’s largest medical device companies, Philips ranked 8th, and Toshiba ranked 23rd, and together with Alliance they make up 68 percent of medical device sales in Italy, according to Law360.com.

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