A case brought in Germany against a Dutch on-line pharmacy has
been referred to the European Court of Justice on the question of
whether German restrictions on drug sales can be applied to a
European web site, according to a report by Frankfurt firm Faegre
Benson Brendel.
The Regional Court of Frankfurt has suspended proceedings
against Dutch web site 0800DocMorris NV which operates from
0800DocMorris.com. It has asked the European Court of Justice to
answer a number of questions, including whether or not German
restrictions on drug sales are compliant with the E-commerce
Directive. The Directive provides a general principle which means
that a business in one European state need only comply with its
national laws to legally sell to consumers in another European
state.
The Frankfurt Court also wants to know what requirements an
on-line pharmacy must fulfil to exercise its duty of care when
selling prescription medicines and is seeking guidance on
cross-border advertising.
Hinrich Mummenthey of Faegre Benson Brendel notes that Regional
Courts of Berlin and Hamburg recently took a different approach. In
separate cases, they accepted sales by non-German on-line
pharmacies to German residents on the basis that EU law “takes
precedence over national laws.”
