Copenhagen, March 13, 2026 — Denmark’s Competition Appeals Tribunal has ruled that Coloplast Danmark A/S abused its dominant market position, confirming an earlier decision by the Danish Competition Council that the company restricted competition in the market for stoma care products.
The tribunal upheld the Competition Council’s 2025 decision, which found that the medical device company attempted to exclude competitors at the wholesale level from winning municipal tenders for stoma care products.
According to the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, the conduct risked increasing costs for municipalities responsible for providing these products to patients.
“As a result of the Competition Council’s decision – and now also the ruling by the Appeals Tribunal – we have stopped harmful conduct by Coloplast Danmark,” said Jakob Hald, director of the authority. “In the long run, there was a risk that municipalities would have had to pay significantly higher prices for stoma care products.”
The tribunal concluded that Coloplast held a dominant position in the upstream market for the sale of Coloplast-branded stoma care products to wholesalers. It also determined that the company abused that position through a “margin squeeze”, making it difficult for competing wholesalers to compete in supplying municipalities.
The case stems from Coloplast’s entry into the wholesale distribution market in 2019 through a consortium with the company Abena. Between 2020 and 2022, Coloplast sold its products to municipalities through the consortium at prices significantly lower than those charged to competing wholesalers purchasing Coloplast products.
Because municipalities must offer a wide range of stoma products to patients—many of whom continue using the same products they were introduced to in hospitals—wholesalers effectively needed access to Coloplast products to compete for municipal contracts.
The pricing structure placed rival wholesalers at a competitive disadvantage and made it difficult for them to win public tenders, according to the authorities.
With the appeals tribunal confirming the infringement, the Competition Council’s January 2025 order requiring Coloplast to stop the margin squeeze practices remains in force.
The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority said it will now continue proceedings to determine financial penalties against the company.
