Chapter Va: Electronic trade in medicinal products by a dispensing pharmacy

Electronic commerce in medicinal products means the economic activity whereby the pharmacist offers or carries out the retail sale and dispensing of medicinal products for human use to the public by electronic means and, to this end, provides online health information. The e-commerce activity is carried out within a pharmacy open to the public which holds the licence referred to in articles L. 5125-10 or L. 5125-18. It is implemented…

Only medicinal products that are not subject to compulsory prescription may be traded electronically.

The creation of the pharmacy’s e-commerce website for medicinal products provided for in the second paragraph of article L. 5125-33 is subject to the existence of the licence referred to in article L. 5125-18 or the decision of the Minister for Health referred to in article L. 5125-10 and the actual opening of the pharmacy.

The creation of the pharmacy’s e-commerce website for medicinal products is subject to prior declaration to the Director General of the regional health agency with territorial jurisdiction. The pharmacist must inform the relevant council of the Order of Pharmacists of the creation of the site.

In the case of a grouping of several pharmacies referred to in article L. 5125-5, only one website may be created and operated, attached to the licence resulting from the grouping. The creation of the website resulting from the merger is subject to the provisions of article L. 5125-36. This website may only be operated once, where applicable, the websites of each of the pharmacies have been closed.

If the pharmacy referred to in Article L. 5125-22 ceases to operate, its website will be closed.

An order issued by the Minister for Health defines the technical rules applicable to e-commerce websites for medicinal products, relating to the protection of health data, website functionalities and methods of presenting medicinal products.

A natural or legal person legally authorised to sell medicinal products to the public in the Member State of the European Union in which it is established may only sell, as part of an electronic commerce activity in medicinal products to a person established in France, medicinal products mentioned in article L. 5125-34 and benefiting from a marketing authorisation in France pursuant to article L. 5121-8 or one of the…

The procedures for applying this chapter, in particular the minimum information that e-commerce websites must contain, shall be determined by decree of the Conseil d’Etat.