UK RPM OTC Action Moving Forward?

While the UK Director General of Fair Trading had not last week appliedto the Restrictive Practices Court to begin the process of seeking to end Resale Price Maintenance on over-the-counter medicines, a spokesman for the Office of Fair Trading told the Marketletter that he believed such a move to be "fairly close."

Discussing speculation that submission of the application was imminent, the spokesman said no date had yet been set but indicated that this could change within a week or two. DGFT John Bridgeman first announced his intention to begin legal action to end RSM on OTCs almost a year ago (Marketletter October 28, 1996).

Speculation concerning the OFT's intentions is widespread and varied. A spokeswoman for the Community Pharmacy Action Group, which is fighting the proposals, told the Marketletter that while other observers believed that the Office was having trouble assembling evidence for its case, some felt it was delaying proceedings because of the publication of the government's draft Competition Bill.