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Dutch GP association is fined €7.7m for anticompetitive behaviour

BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e439 (Published 16 January 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e439
  1. Tony Sheldon
  1. 1Utrecht

The Dutch Association of General Practitioners has been fined €7.72m (£6.4m; $9.8m) for contravening competition law that protects the free market principles underpinning Dutch healthcare.

The Dutch Competition Authority (Nederlandse Mededingingsautoriteit) found that the professional body was unlawfully advising its members that they could restrict the freedom of new GPs to set up practice. This followed unannounced “dawn raids” on the association’s regional offices in 2010 (BMJ 2011;343:d4495, doi:10.1136/bmj.d4495). Two of the association’s staff who were deemed to be responsible for the advice were fined respectively €50 000 and €25 000.

One of the competition authority’s board members, Henk Don, described it as a “bad” case of anticompetitive behaviour, and a spokesperson for the …

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