GlaxoSmithKline has been fined $55 milllion (£37.6 million) in its appeal of a pay-for-delay case dating back to the early 2000s and involving its now off-patent antidepressant Seroxat/Paxil.

The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal upheld the conclusions of the previous 2016 ruling, that the country’s largest drugmaker had struck deals with generics producers. Companies named in the original case included Germany’s Merck and Generics UK, among others.

All of the companies, in the first round fined around $7 million in total, are said to be appealing the fines.

In the 2016 case, the Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) alleged that the drugmaker had paid generics companies around $72 million between 2001 and 2004 to delay the launch of copies. This allowed it to keep selling its own, more expensive, dug to the National Health Services.

Appealing the case, GSK asked the tribunal to “annul or substantially reduce” its fine and order the CMA to pay the cost of the appeal.

The appeals tribunal has referred “all substantive points” to the European Court of Justice , the drugmaker acknowledged in a statement. As this judgment is still pending, it said it would not comment further.