IDEXX Laboratories Ltd: alleged abuse of a dominant position
Office of Fair Trading (OFT) closed Competition Act 1998 case.
Case reference: CE/9322/10
Summary of work
In November 2011, the OFT concluded that it had no grounds to take action against IDEXX Laboratories Limited (IDEXX) following an investigation into alleged abuse of a dominant position in the veterinary diagnostic testing sector.
The OFT opened its investigation in November 2010 after it received a complaint alleging that IDEXX was abusing a dominant position in the market for the supply of in-clinic companion animal testing equipment in order to foreclose competition.
The conduct assessed by the OFT included alleged practices of:
- providing discounts on diagnostic testing equipment to vets who agreed to use IDEXX's external laboratory services
- providing free or heavily discounted IDEXX analysers to vets who agreed to spend a minimum amount each month on materials to be used with those analysers, and
- offering discounted bundles of external laboratory tests which included a test that was only available from IDEXX.
Following careful assessment of the evidence at its disposal, the OFT concluded that it had no grounds to take action against IDEXX.
The full reasoning for the OFT's conclusion, including details of the methodologies used by the OFT to assess potential theories of harm relating to alleged mixed bundling (also known as multi-product rebates) and alleged predatory pricing in systems markets, is set out in the OFT's decision.
- Download (pdf 645kb)