BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has opened an investigation into China’s acquisition of medical devices to determine whether European companies have fair access to the market, the Official Journal of the European Union said on Wednesday.
This is the first time that an investigation has been triggered on the basis of the IMPI (International Public Procurement Instrument) regulation of June 2022 which allows the European executive to investigate suspicions of obstruction of access to markets of third countries and to enter into consultation with them.
Brussels may, at the end of this investigation expected to last at least nine months, decide to restrict the access of Chinese manufacturers of medical devices to public markets in the EU. Beijing did not immediately react.
Several measures supporting suspicions of favoritism are cited in the notice published in the Official Journal, including the “buy in China” policy, restrictions on purchases of imported goods and conditions in the centralized acquisition of medical devices, by hospitals in particular. , “leading to abnormally low bids that cannot be sustained by for-profit companies.”
“According to the Commission’s preliminary assessment, the above-mentioned measures and practices result in a serious and recurrent de jure and de facto obstacle to the access of Union economic operators, products and services to public procurement of medical devices in (China)”, we can read.
The Commission invites the GOC “to present its views and provide relevant information regarding the alleged measures and practices” and to “engage in consultations (…) in order to eliminate the alleged measures and practices or to remediate”.
(Philip Blenkinsop, Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version)
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