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.”