Stichting Farma ter Verantwoording v. AbbVie Inc., AbbVie B.V., and AbbVie Deutschland GmbH CO. KG, District Court Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 17 July 2024, Case no. ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2024:4255
Settlement of mass damages in collective action Act proceedings, (Wet afwikkeling massaschade in collectieve actie, ‘WAMCA’) in which the plaintiff ‘Foundation hold Pharma Accountable’ seeks a ruling that drug manufacturer AbbVie acted unlawfully and abused its economic dominant position by charging excessive prices for the drug Humira during the period the substance enjoyed patent protection.
In this judgment, the District Court Amsterdam rules that it has jurisdiction over the American defendant because it forms an economic entity with the Dutch defendant in determining the price of the Humira medicine and placing that medicine on the Dutch market. The court has no jurisdiction over the German defendant because there has been insufficient evidence of coherence between the claims against the Dutch defendant and those against the German defendant.
The court further rules that the Foundation meets the legal requirements for a collective action. The next phase is the substantive handling of the foundation’s claims.
The judgment can be read here.