According to judgments of the Landgericht München I, the online evaluation portal Jameda has to delete the profiles of doctors under certain circumstances. Three doctors had sued and demanded that their profiles, which had been created without their consent, be removed from the portal.
The court gave the complaints on Friday instead (file number 25 O 13978/18, 25 O 13979/18 and 25 O 13980/18), the judgments are not yet final.
However, the court did not find it problematic to create rating profiles without the consent of the valuer. In the three cases in question, the design of the profiles was decisive for the judges.
No "neutral information broker"
The board complained that Jameda published on the profiles of base customers who use the offer for free, so-called "expert advice articles" of paying competitors and linked to the profiles of these so-called Platinum customers.
These papers were "content-wise to divert the interest of a potential patient away from the base clients to the authors of the articles that are paid customers of Jameda," the court said. Thus, the online platform is not a "neutral information broker".
Judges insist on equal treatment
The board emphasized that "the Jameda-operated medical assessment portal fulfills a socially acceptable function that is fundamentally approved by the legal system", as long as Jameda "maintains its position as a neutral information mediator". However, it should give its paying customers "no hidden advantages over non-paying base customers". The base customers admitted without their consent should not be used as an "advertising platform" for premium customers.
Jameda interpreted the three judgments as a fundamental confirmation of the right to a full list of physicians for the information of patients. Anyway, the three cases refer to an outdated layout, which is now obsolete. "We are convinced that complete lists of physicians provide patients with essential added value for an informed choice of doctor, and the open dialogue about our vision to improve healthcare in Germany is very important to us," said Jameda CEO Florian Weiß.