Outlook For UK Retail Price Maintenance

Last year saw excitement in the over-the-counter sector of the UK drug market with regard to Retail Price Maintenance, first with the news that supermarket chain Asda Stores Ltd planned to flout the rules (Marketletter September 18, 1995) and then with the announcement of an Office of Fair Trading review of RPM's economic desirability (Marketletter October 30, 1995).

OTC medicines were exempted from the general ban on RPM in 1970, but the OFT has said it wants to establish whether the same circumstances exist now. In that year, the Restrictive Trade Practices Court agreed that small, local pharmacists provide an important service to the public, being especially valuable to the elderly, the infirm and those without transport.

It accepted that many pharmacies would be forced to close by the activities of discounters, and that subsequent loss of local services would adversely affect consumers. According to a report from the Proprietary Association of Great Britain, the OFT review should be completed by the summer of this year, and if it finds there is a case against RPM on OTC medicines, its timetable could be as follows: