The Commission imposed the fines on Servier and five producers of generic medicines - Niche/Unichem, Matrix (now part of Mylan), Teva, Krka and Lupin - "for concluding a series of deals all aimed at protecting Servier's bestselling blood pressure medicine, perindopril, from price competition by generics in the EU".

Through a technology acquisition and a series of patent settlements with generic rivals, Servier implemented a strategy to exclude competitors and delay the entry of cheaper generic medicine to the detriment of public budgets and patients in breach of EU antitrust rules, the Commission wrote.

"Servier had a strategy to systematically buy out any competitive threats to make sure that they stayed out of the market. Such behaviour is clearly anti-competitive and abusive. Competitors cannot agree to share markets or market rents instead of competing, even when these agreements are in the form of patent settlements," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.