Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE) yesterday imposed penalties of 2.9 million reais (€940,000) on a doctor’s co-operative for abuse of dominance.
The council found Unimed Taquari and Rio Pardo guilty of preventing members from being part of other physicians’ co-operatives and health plans.
Commissioner Ricardo Ruiz says this practice is illegal because it prevents competitors entering the market.
"The exclusivity imposed by Unimed Vales and Taquari e Rio Pardo in providing medical services to its associates is considered an illegal conduct, since it limits or impedes the access of new companies to that market," he said.
Unimed is Brazil’s largest health-care network, with operations in 75 per cent of the country. Its Taquari and Rio Pardo co-operative is situated in Rio Grande do Sul state, in southern Brazil.
In March, CADE settled with 40 Unimed doctors’ co-operatives to halt this practice and remove exclusivity clauses from its contracts but Unimed Taquari and Rio Pardo did not settle. The co-operative was convicted of the same offence in 2001. CADE took into account both of these facts in the judgment.
In addition to the fine, the company has been forced to remove exclusivity clauses from its contracts.
Ana Paula Martinez, at Levy & Salomão Advogados in São Paulo, says the fine is similar to others CADE has issued for abuse of dominance by doctors’ co-operatives:
"Exclusivity clauses imposed by physicians' co-operative holding a dominant position account for the greatest number of sanctions imposed by the CADE since 1994," she says. "There have been over 50 sanctions while 39 other investigations were settled."
In April, CADE blocked Unimed Franca’s takeover of Franca Regional Hospital in São Paulo due to fears that it would have too large a share of the regional market.
