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German Register of Online Medicine Retailers

In the German Register of Online Medicine Retailers, you can find pharmacies and other medicine retailers that are officially authorised for the mail order trade. It therefore contributes to more transparency in the mail order and internet trade with medicine.
Regulary updated overviews show you at any time whether your online medicine retailer is included.
Registered retailers have to to display the EU security logo illustrated on the left on this website. Each EU member state provides a national register of online medicine retailers (list hosted by European Medicines Agency).


Registration of retailers

Does your pharmacy/retail business have a mail order permit and is not yet included in the register? If so, please refer to your competent supervisory authority.

Legal Background

Mail order selling of pharmacy-only medicines has been allowed in Germany since 2004. The same legal requirements apply for mail order pharmacies as for any retail pharmacy. However, up to now, consumers on the internet were not able to tell whether a pharmacy has an official authorisation for mail order selling for Germany.

Since 26th June 2015, the new section 8 of paragraph 67 of the German Drug Law applies. It is part of the national implementation of the European "falsified medicines" directive 2011/62/EU. According to this regulation, every website offering the public medicinal products for human use per mail-order, has to display the common security logo and has to be indexed in the national register. This does not only concern pharmacies, but also other companies selling medicinal products which are released for trade outside of pharmacies.

This is now possible through the German Register of Online Medicine Retailers and the related EU security logo that BfArM, formerly DIMDI provides since 21th April 2009 on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health. This register only includes pharmacies that have an official permit for mail order of medicines for Germany (§ 43 section 1 para. 1 of the German Drug Law). The competent bodies for the contents of the onlione medicine retailer register are those that are responsible for pharmacy monitoring according to federal state law (competent supervisory authorities). If you like to order medicines at mail order pharmacies from abroad, please take note of our FAQ.

FAQ

I am looking for a specific online medicine retailer. How can I find it in the overviews?

Open one of the provided overviews of online medicine retailers.

  • Press the keys "Ctrl" and "F" simultaneously. The Find toolbar is now activated.
  • Type your search term or parts of it, e.g. name or location of the retailer, in the text box on the Find toolbar and press the Enter key to start the search.
  • If there are several hits for your search term, click the button "Find Previous" or "Find Next" next to the Find Toolbar.

Are online medicine retailers from abroad allowed to ship medicine to Germany?

According to the country list of the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG)

  1. human medicine may currently be shipped to Germany from
    • Iceland
    • the Netherlands (only if also an associated retail pharmacy exists)
    • Sweden (for prescription medicine only)
    • the Czech Republic (for non-prescription medicine only)

  2. veterinary medicine may currently be shipped to Germany from
    • the Czech Republic (for non-prescription medicine only)

Please be aware that these online medicine retailers have to act in compliance with German law. BfArM is not a competent supervisory authority.

However, after Brexit came into effect, mail order sales of human medicine from there to Germany are no longer permitted.

Country list of the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) (PDF, 148 kB)

Does the German Register of Online Medicine Retailers include retailers for veterinary medicinal products?

No. It only includes retailers for human medicinal products.

The online medicine retailer I am seeking is missing in the register. What does that mean?

If the retailer you are seeking is missing in the register, there may be the following reasons for this:

  • The pharmacy holds a mail order permit, but is not yet included in the register.
  • The pharmacy does not hold a mail order permit.
  • The medicine retailer is allowed to trade, but is not yet included in the register.
  • The medicine retailer isn’t allowed to trade.