Federal antitrust laws forbid certain types of collusion and anti-competitive behavior.  Because violations of the laws can lead to severe penalties, trade associations such as Intellus Worldwide must ensure that their meetings do not become forums for the forbidden behavior (discussions) by both pharmaceutical/healthcare manufacturer companies and marketing research agencies.  In particular, we are forbidden from sharing information regarding pricing (especially with a view to engaging in price-fixing).  We also are forbidden from discussions about dividing market segments between or among competitors.  A more detailed list of the protections that we must enforce at our meetings includes: 

  1.     Don't discuss current, future or past prices of particular researchers or healthcare companies.*

  2.     Don't discuss any increase or decrease in prices of particular researchers or healthcare companies.*

  3.     Don't discuss margins or what are perceived as fair profit levels.

  4.     Don't discuss standardizing or stabilizing prices.

  5.     Don't discuss pricing procedures.

  6.     Don't discuss discounts or rebates.

  7.     Don't discuss credit terms.

  8.     Don't discuss controlling sales by vendors -- as to either customers or levels of sales.

  9.     Don't discuss allocating markets (e.g., by territory or by type of customer).

10.    Don't complain to a competitor that its prices constitute unfair trade practices.

11.    Don't discuss refusing to deal with a particular company.

At the very first mention of a forbidden topic at an Intellus Worldwide event, the people conducting the meeting must ensure that the discussion immediately ends.

* Pricing of healthcare products may only be discussed within the context of generalized, de-identified phenomena, analytics and know-how pertaining to the discipline of marketing research.