It is the established formal policy of HIDA and HEF to comply fully with the antitrust laws applicable to their activities, which include conferences and meetings involving employees of many competing distributors and manufacturers in the healthcare industry. The Sherman Act and other applicable antitrust laws are intended to promote vigorous and productive business competition and to combat various restraints of trade.
In furtherance of this policy, HIDA and HEF board meetings are attended by HIDA/HEF legal counsel and HIDA/HEF periodically consults with legal counsel regarding antitrust matters.
Individuals who participates in a HIDA or HEF activity, including HIDA and HEF board members and members of advisory councils and committees, has a responsibility to their employer, to themselves and their family, and to HIDA and HEF, to avoid any improper conduct from an antitrust standpoint. The following guidelines will assist in meeting this responsibility:
- HIDA conferences, meetings, and other activities are, in general, to be focused on healthcare industry promotion, industry issues, industry development, or educationally oriented. HEF conferences, meetings, and other activities are to be concerned with advancing the educational purposes of HEF. Subject to the above and the advice of HIDA/HEF's legal counsel, discussions by participants at HIDA or HEF conferences, meetings, or other activities may generally cover industry product developments on a generic basis, advancing distributors' "business management and salesmanship technical know-how and skills," improving distributors' productivity and efficiency, distributors' historical market data on a general (i.e. non-specific company) basis, industry-wide legal, regulatory and legislative issues, and industry developments of educational concern to distributors.
- In view of antitrust considerations (both civil and criminal) and to avoid any possible restraints on competition, the following legally-sensitive subjects as to a given company or its competitors must be avoided during any discussion between competitors:
- Future marketing plans of individual competitors should not be discussed between competitors;
- Any complaints or business plans relating to specific customers, specific suppliers, specific geographic markets or specific products, should not be discussed between competitors;
- Purchasing plans or bidding plans should not be discussed (except privately between two parties with a vertical commercial relationship such as supplier and customer);
- Current and future specific price information and pricing plans, bidding plans, refund or rebate plans, discount plans, credit plans, specific product costs, profit margin information and terms of sale should not be discussed between competitors;
- Collective boycotts, collective refusals to deal, collective imposed penalties, or other anti-competitive activities in violation of law.
- All of the above are elements of competition which must not be the subject of any agreement between competitors;
Any questions regarding the legality of a discussion topic or business practice should be brought to the attention of HIDA/HEF's legal counsel or a company's individual legal counsel for legal advice.
See Also
Recording Policy