New logo for online shop selling medicines

From 1 July 2015, all online pharmacies or online shop selling medicines in the EU must display a new logo to show they are operating legally. This logo was introduced by the Falsified Medicines Directive (2011/62/EU) to protect patients from falsified medicines – fake medicines designed to look like real, authorised medicines. Falsified medicines might contain ingredients which are of bad quality or in the wrong dose, or they might contain no active ingredients at all.

Any patient considering buying medicines online should look out for the logo on the website of the online pharmacy. The logo should be displayed on every page of the website. When clicking on the logo, you should be taken to the website of the national regulatory authority where the online pharmacy is based, which contains a list of all legally operating pharmacies and online sellers of medicines in that country.

Online sale of medicines in Europe

The sale of medicines online is legal in some EU countries, and not in others. This will still remain the case. The European Medicines Agency has set up a website with more information on the online sale of medicines, and there you will find a list with hyperlinks to all EU Member States' websites. 

Further information

For more info from the European Commission on the logo: http://ec.europa.eu/health/human-use/eu-logo/index_en.htm

European Medicines' Agency page listing national websites: http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.jsp?curl=/pages/regulation/general/general_content_000630.jsp