According to news reports, the NHS in England has launched legal action against Reckitt Benckiser, maker of Gaviscon, on behalf of the 10 SHAs and 144 PCTs. The action was issued on 15 February in the High Court but neither the company nor the Department of Health would confirm that it concerns Gaviscon. Details of the claim form only become public once it is served on the defendant and the defendant returns an acknowledgment of service to the court.

Reckitt Benckiser was fined £10 million in 2010 for abusing its dominant market position in the supply of heartburn remedies to the NHS following an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading (see link to NeLM report). The breach related to its removal of Gaviscon Original Liquid in 2005 from a list of products available on prescription shortly after its patent expired, but before a generic name had been assigned to the original product, so prescriptions had to be filled by Gaviscon Advance Liquid, which was still patent protected, thus costing the NHS millions of pounds. Payment of a fine for a breach of EU competition law does not prevent a third party, such as the NHS from seeking compensation in the civil courts.