Antitrust Byte

Group purchasing organizations (“GPOs”) face unique antitrust compliance concerns because of the fundamental structure of a GPO — e.g., a group of purchasers, some of whom may be competitors, who collectively could have “monopsony power” — i.e., significant market power or bargaining power. Whereas monopoly power relates to the power of a particular seller in a market, monopsony power relates to the power of a particular purchaser in a market. Like monopoly power, monopsony power requires a certain level of market share. Antitrust risks increase as the purchasing power increases. Nevertheless, group purchasing arrangements through GPOs are generally permissible under the antitrust laws. These arrangements usually reduce costs, and thus have the potential to benefit consumers through lower prices, and rarely result in the loss of competition in any market.

The Seventh Statement of the Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care (“Statement”), issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), recognizes the procompetitive benefits of group purchasing, while weighing the concern of monopsony power. The Statement describes an antitrust safety zone for certain GPOs among health care professionals. This safety zone provides that “absent extraordinary circumstances,” neither the DOJ nor the FTC will challenge a joint purchasing arrangement among health care providers if two conditions are met:

(1) the purchases account for less than 35 percent of the total sales of the purchased product or service in the relevant market; and (2) the cost of the products and services purchased jointly accounts for less than 20 percent of the total revenues from all products or services sold by each competing participant in the joint purchasing arrangement.

A GPO that does not fall within the safety zone does not necessarily violate the antitrust laws, but the GPO must be analyzed to determine whether its procompetitive effects (lower prices and benefits to consumers) are sufficient to outweigh any monopsonization concerns.


For additional information about the issues discussed above, or if you have any other antitrust concerns, please contact the Epstein Becker Green attorney who regularly handles your legal matters, or one of the authors of this Antitrust Byte:

E. John Steren
Member of the Firm
esteren@ebglaw.com
Patricia Wagner
Member of the Firm,
Chief Privacy Officer
pwagner@ebglaw.com

Services

Jump to Page

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.