According to The Washington Post, US health care company Johnson & Johnson was found guilty of ‘vertical monopoly’ by the court for setting minimum prices for surgical sutures and was ordered to pay 530,000 yuan (US $85,000) damages to the distributor for lost profits.

Previous lawsuit rejected

The lawsuit was filed by Rainbow Medical Equipment & Supply after a lawsuit it filed in 2010, demanding about 14 million yuan in compensation from J&J, was rejected in 2012. The Shanghai Municipal Higher People’s Court finalised court proceedings with the verdict that only suture product sales by Rainbow Medical in 2008 should be reimbursed, Xinhua News Agency reports. The increased scrutiny by Chinese regulators has cast a shadow on global expansion in China with lawyers worried that Chinese anti-monopoly law is causing uncertainty for global companies.