While the online sale of non-prescription drugs has been authorized since 2012, it was still hampered until last March by French regulations, which notably prohibited paid referencing. This allows pharmacies to pay search engines like Google to be placed at the top of the page when searching for a drug that they offer online. But the appeal lodged with the Council of State by the Simmons & Simmons firm and a few pharmacists including Philippe Lailler and his Grace de Dieu pharmacy in Caen, which boasts of having created the first French site for the sale of drugs online, will finally have bearing fruit. On March 17, the Council ofState has reversed its 2018 decision by allowing pharmacists to pay for their drugs sold online to be better listed. A decision which takes note two months later, this Monday, May 17.
Read also: A breach has opened in the online sale of drugs
Fairer competition within the EU
Among the reasons for this decision, the Council of State mentions a harmonization of regulations within the European Union allowing fairer competition. Indeed, "
French customers can access sites located in another Member State of the European Union which are not subject to the same ban
", to promote them via paid online referencing. This imbalance would be detrimental to French pharmacies, compared to their European competitors, which "
thus benefit from greater visibility likely to allow them to concentrate an increased share of drug sales
". According to a group of pharmacies cited by
Le Parisien
, some of these competitors, notably Germans, Belgians and Dutch, have gone so far as to buy .fr domains to gain access to the French market.
Maintaining the pharmacist-client relationship
Another argument used by the Council of State:
"the objective of combating the overconsumption of drugs and against the misuse of the latter"
does not seem to be achieved by the prohibition of paid referencing, since French customers can easily avoid supply via the sites of other European countries more visible online. Finally, the relationship of trust and advice between pharmacists and customers would not be affected by this new authorization, according to the Council of State which, on the contrary, wishes to discourage the purchase of drugs "
from sites that are not subject to guarantees. ethics applicable to pharmacists established in France
".
Gilles Bonnefond, President of the Union of Unions of Pharmacy Pharmacists (USPO), also quoted by Le Parisien, considers on the contrary that "
this decision runs the risk of unbalancing the pharmaceutical supply by some with large means , to the detriment of all the others, that does not go in the direction of a good use of the drug.
"
Read also: Should we be afraid of buying drugs on the internet?
Strict rules
However, the sale of medicines online remains subject to strict regulation. Only drugs delivered without a prescription are authorized. The pharmacy manager who wishes to create an e-commerce site must request authorization from the director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS). The products must be presented there
"in an objective, clear and not misleading way",
and at prices lower than in pharmacies, to which are however added the expenses of delivery. Internet sites selling drugs must rely on a pharmacy with a storefront in France, and stock all their products there. The issue of drug warehouses that would allow more flexible supply of online sales sites therefore remains unresolved.
