Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-179"
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"en.20031021.6.2-179"2
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".
Community legislation on medicines strictly regulates their authorisation, their placing on the market, and their classification. The same applies to their advertising. Nevertheless, the supply of medicines to private individuals, in other words the sale to the public by a pharmacist, is not regulated at Community level under pharmaceutical legislation. As a result, the sale of medicines to private individuals through the Internet is not covered by European pharmaceutical legislation. Sales of this nature fall under national provisions, which must be seen in the context of the ‘general principles’ of the Treaty, in other words, Articles 28 to 30 on the free movement of goods. The Commission does not, therefore, have accurate figures on the scale of legal electronic sales of medicines in the European Union. Nor does it have figures for the total quantity of medicines supplied through the Internet within the European Union and beyond its borders, with or without an electronic prescription.
This issue could also be considered in light of the Directive on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts, which lays down that, in order to guarantee a higher level of consumer protection, Member States can adopt or uphold stricter provisions, providing that these are compatible with the Treaty. These provisions include, should this prove necessary, banning the marketing on their territory, by means of a remote contract, of certain goods or services, in particular medicines, in compliance with the Treaty.
The issue of the compatibility of national measures with the Treaty, in other words Articles 28 to 30, is currently the subject of the DocMorris NV and Jacques Waterval case, which is pending in the Court of Justice. The issue mainly concerns looking at the proportionality of national measures of this nature and the justification for them, in order to protect human health and life.
The sale of medicines through the Internet raises issues of health protection and legal issues and improving the information available to patients is precisely one of the key elements of the recent Commission communication entitled ‘A Stronger European-based Pharmaceutical Industry for the Benefit of the Patient – A Call for Action’.
The Commission has committed itself to looking into setting up a realistic and practical framework for informing patients about prescription medicines. By the way, the Commission intends to set up a European health portal which could address these issues. It should, however, be noted that it is primarily the responsibility of the Member States to inform consumers about the dangers of buying over the Internet and to monitor these activities. The Commission can, therefore, only act in a very limited set of circumstances."@en1
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