145Consequently, Questions 8 to 10, taken together, must be understood as seeking to ascertain whether Article 102 TFEU must be interpreted as meaning that the strategy of a dominant undertaking that is the holder of a process patent, for the production of an active ingredient that is in the public domain, which leads it to conclude, either as a precaution or following the bringing of court proceedings challenging the validity of that patent, a number of settlement agreements, the effect of which is, at least, to keep temporarily outside the market potential competitors who manufacture generic medicines using that active ingredient, constitutes an abuse of a dominant position, within the meaning of Article 102 TFEU, even though one of the agreements concerned was exempted from the scope of national competition law.
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