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An online pharmacy has been sanctioned with a fine of € 200,000 for unfair commercial practices connected to the sale of pharmaceutical products online.
Indeed, up until the full implementation of the EU Directive 2011/62/EU, the online sale of pharmaceutical products is prohibited under Italian law both for over-the-counter and prescription pharmaceuticals, while the defendant was advertising the fact that the sale was 100% compliant with applicable laws leading customers to underestimate the potential risks associated with such sale.
In this respect, it is interesting to see that the practice above has been sanctioned for breach of misleading advertising and unfair commercial practices regulations, since consumers had been misled on the legality of the online sale of pharmaceuticals and the conduct might potentially endanger the health conditions of consumers to which the advertising material was addressed.
This is a very interesting decision since the competition authority, which is also the authority in charge of misleading advertising and unfair commercial practices disputes, has challenged a conduct that is normally decided by authorities regulating pharmaceutical matters. And indeed, this shows a new scope of action of advertising regulations that shall not be underestimated in assessing the potential risks of unlawful practices.
It will be interesting to see the future developments in the sector. Also, we shall watch very closely the scenario when the Italian regulator will allow the online sale of over-the-counter products. In the meantime if you want to discuss the above, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio, also follow me on Twitter and become one of my friends on LinkedIn.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Cedrick Ledesma
