The Commission for the Protection of Competition of Competition after the completion of the due preliminary investigation conducted by its Service, unanimously decided, acting under the relevant legislation, to initiate infringement proceedings against the Pancyprian Medical Association (PIS), regarding a prima facie suspected infringement of Article 3(1)(b) of the Law and the corresponding Article 101(1)(b) of the Law.b' of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and to this end notified it of the relevant Statement of Objections.
In its notice the Competition Protection Commission states that the suspected, prima facie, infringement concerns the actions of PIS in general, and in particular the decision of its General Assembly of 27/10/2018, as well as its previous and subsequent decisions as an association of undertakings and a number of its members, by which the Members of PIS and by extension the scientific societies were either invited or urged by its leadership not to participate in the GESY unless the conditions set and communicated to OAI and the Minister of Health were accepted.
The Commission prima facie concluded that the decision of PIS is a kind of "blocking" in order to accept the terms and/or conditions set by PIS in the negotiations in relation to the proposed General Health Plan. In particular, the Commission considered prima facie that the limited number of registrations of doctors (personal and specialist doctors) in the national health system limited the availability of health care services from doctors to final consumers, since the reduced participation of doctors in the General Health Insurance Scheme affected the uninterrupted provision of health care services.
Consequently, the Competition Protection Commission considered prima facie that the actions and decisions of PIS had the object or effect of hindering, restricting or distorting competition within the Republic and consisted in restricting or controlling the supply and/or provision of services from 1/1/2018 to 11/6/2019, in violation of Article 3(1) (b) of the Law and the corresponding Article 101(1) (b) of the TFEU.
The Commission also clarifies that the present notice is not of a binding nature, but purely informative and notification of the Report does not prejudge the final outcome of the cases, nor can it in any way prejudge and/or substitute the final judgment of the Commission.
According to its notice, upon completion of the examination procedure of the case and after the relevant oral procedure has been conducted and any written and oral observations of the Competition Protection Commission have been considered, the Competition Protection Commission will, upon completion of the examination procedure of the case and after the relevant oral procedure has been conducted and any written and oral observations of the Commission have been considered. CNA
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