Excessive Pricing in Pharmaceutical Markets: Recent Cases in Italy and in the EU

Excessive pricing is one of the most controversial topic in competition policy. Literature on the issue is divided between scholars calling for an interventionist approach and those supporting a non-interventionist one on the basis of conflicting rationales. In the recent years the European Commission has reaffirmed a commitment to pursue excessive prices cases. National competition authorities have conducted enforcement activity in the pharmaceutical sector concerning mainly off-patent drugs . This Chapter analyses the Aspen case, which has been initially investigated by Italian competition authority and held before national courts and then investigated by the European Commission, taking its first excessive pricing decision in the pharmaceutical sector.