Group Purchasing Organizations Antitrust Issues Checklist

Summary

This checklist provides guidance on antitrust issues related to Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) or other forms of joint purchasing arrangements (collectively referred to in this checklist as GPOs), and certain ways to mitigate potential risks. Most GPOs are procompetitive because they enable participants to achieve efficiencies that ultimately benefit consumers. But as with any joint activity by competitors, GPOs can trigger antitrust concerns, including concerns about monopsony (buyer power) relative to suppliers to the GPO, horizontal price-fixing among participants, exclusionary practices by suppliers to the GPO, and group boycotts via excluding competitors from the GPO. GPOs are especially common in the healthcare industry, but the antitrust issues that may arise are not limited to that context.