Abstract

The prerequisites for the prohibition of pharmacy advertising have been formulated intuitively, without any in-depth analysis of the macroeconomic facts carried out by various independent research centres, in particular as compare with the time when such advertising was allowed. Moreover, the ban on pharmacy advertising has not been correlated by the legislator with advertising of medicinal products available to patients.

In the caselaw and decisions of pharmaceutical inspection authorities one may frequently find an interpretation of the ban on pharmacy advertising as a permission to indicate exclusively the location and opening hours of a pharmacy.

Courts find it difficult to specify the notion of the ban on advertising pharmacies and dispensaries, and their activities. It is manifested primarily in determining the relationship between advertising and information as well as defining the elements of pharmacy advertising in specific cases. This is an important component of the practical exercise of business freedom by legal entities. Total prohibition of advertising is neither a necessary nor the only possible determinant for introducing equal conditions of competition between pharmacy chains and smaller family pharmacies. Disturbing the functioning of competition in the pharmacy market Art. 94a of the Pharmaceutical Act infringes free competition, which is an element of the principle of social market economy laid down in Art. 20 of the Constitution.