The Competition Authority (CA) says it is commencing legal proceedings against the the doctors' union, the IMO following its refusal to rescind a decision to withdraw from certain services in protest at new Government cuts to State fees paid to GPs.

The Authority had given the IMO until 12pm yesterday to give an undertaking to reverse this decision.

The CA said following the expiry of the deadline, it received correspondence from the IMO's solicitors stating that the Organisation would not be complying with the Authority's request.

In light of this development, the Authority said it had has today filed papers in the High Court seeking a declaration that the IMO's decision to withdraw the services with a view to preventing the reduction in fees is prohibited under both Irish and EU competition law and is therefore void.

The CA is also seeking an an interlocutory injunction requiring the IMO to rescind its decision of July 8, not to issue any further decisions to the same or similar effect, and to remove from the IMO's website its press release of July 10 relating to this matter and to publish on its website an open undertaking to reverse its decision on withdrawal from certain services.

The CA says the hearing of the Authority's interlocutory application is expected to take place within the next week.

Last week, the IMO, as a protest measure against the fee cuts, said its GP members would withdraw from any work that is not covered by the terms of the GMS (medical card) contract.

This included an immediate withdrawal from primary care teams, community intervention teams and clinical care programmes for the management of chronic disease.

The Department of Health recently announced GP fee cuts of around 7.5% for some services under State schemes.