In March 2020, Hospital Particular do Algarve, S.A. (‘HPA’) was condemned to the payment of a fine of €155.000 euros, for implementing a merger operation without previous notification to the Autoridade da Concorrência (‘AdC’). This merger concerned the acquisition of the sole control of Hospital S. Gonçalo de Lagos, S.A..
The Portuguese Competition Act determines the obligation to notify a merger operation to the AdC whenever any of the merger thresholds are met, together with a standstill obligation until AdC’s clearance. In this case, the transaction created a market share above 50% in the market of private healthcare services’ units in Algarve. The infringing party unlawfully implemented the transaction before formally notifying it to the AdC.
This investigation was opened in September 2019 and during the infringement procedure, the infringing party submitted a proposal for a settlement, having admitted the facts and assumed its liability.
After the detection of the infraction by the AdC, HPA decided to voluntary notify the merger operation, which was cleared by the AdC in September 2019.
The infringing party adopted a conduct of full and close collaboration with the AdC during the entire procedures.
When determining the amount of the fine, the AdC took into account this collaboration and the fact that the merger was voluntarily notified, even if only a posteriori.
This was the third time since 2014 that the AdC applied a fine to an undertaking for failing to notify a merger operation that meets the notification thresholds, being the first case in which the threshold concerned related with the market shares arising from the transaction.