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Buying medicine online
The one check that separates a legal online pharmacy from the rest, what the EU common logo is for, which rules differ by country, and the red flags that mean walk away.
| In short | What it means |
|---|---|
| The one check | Click the EU common logo — it must land in the national register |
| The legal shape | A registered pharmacy that also sells at a distance |
| Varies by country | Whether prescription medicines may be sold by post at all |
| Never legal | A prescription medicine sold without a prescription |
This describes how pharmacy systems work; it is not medical advice, not a diagnosis and not a directory. It carries no pharmacy names, addresses, telephone numbers, opening times or prices, because those go out of date faster than a page can be republished — confirm anything time-sensitive with the pharmacy itself. Nothing here is a reason to start, stop or change a medicine: that belongs to your prescriber, and the pharmacist at the counter is the fastest professional to ask in the meantime.
What a legal online pharmacy actually is
In the EU and EEA an online seller of medicines is not a separate species of business. It is a pharmacy or a retailer that is already authorised to sell medicines in its country and that has additionally notified its national authority that it sells at a distance. That notification puts it on a public national list. Everything else — the design of the site, the reviews, the payment methods, the professional-looking regulatory badges — is decoration that anyone can copy. The list is the only fact. This is why the advice on this page reduces to a single instruction: start from the national register, not from a search result or an advertisement.
The common logo, and how to use it properly
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 699/2014 created a common logo that every legal distance seller in the EU must display on each page offering medicines for sale. It is a rectangle with a white cross on a green-to-grey gradient and the national flag of the country the seller is registered in. The logo itself proves nothing, because it is an image. The check is that clicking it takes you to the entry for that seller on that country's official register, and that the entry names the same business and the same website. If the logo is not clickable, or it lands somewhere that is not the national authority, or the register entry is for a different name, you are done: close the tab.
What differs between countries
Distance selling of non-prescription medicines is broadly permitted across the EU and EEA. Distance selling of prescription medicines is not uniform: some countries permit it under conditions, others do not permit it at all, and the conditions include how the prescription is verified and how the identity of the buyer is established. A site that offers to post prescription medicines into a country where that is not allowed is telling you something about itself. Sweden and Denmark have large legal online pharmacy sectors; Estonia and Finland have tighter arrangements. Check the rule for the country you are ordering into, not only the country the seller sits in.
The red flags
A prescription medicine offered without a prescription — this is the single reliable marker of an illegal seller, and no legitimate pharmacy anywhere in the EEA does it. An online consultation that approves everything in ninety seconds. No physical address, or an address that does not match the register. Payment only by bank transfer, gift card or cryptocurrency. A price that is a fraction of the pharmacy price for a patented product. Marketing pressure — countdown timers, "last stock", unsolicited email. A domain registered weeks ago. No pharmacist contactable. Spelling errors in the product names, which is a surprisingly durable signal because the counterfeit supply chain does not proofread.
What actually arrives
Falsified medicines are not merely weaker versions of the real thing. Analyses of seized products have found the wrong active substance, no active substance, the right substance at an uncontrolled dose, and industrial contaminants. The buyer's harm is not only the money: it is a treated condition that is not being treated, plus whatever else is in the tablet. The EU's safety-feature system — the 2D code and the tamper seal described on the safety features page — protects the legal supply chain, and by construction it cannot protect anything bought outside it. That is the whole argument for the register check.
If the reason you are ordering online is price
That is worth taking seriously rather than dismissing, and it usually has a legitimate answer at a counter. Ask whether a reference-priced equivalent exists that removes your co-payment; ask whether the pack size can be matched to the prescription so you are not paying for a part-pack; ask whether your entitlement is registered and whether you are near an annual ceiling. Who pays for a medicine sets out the five mechanisms in this region and the three questions that recover most of the money. A legal online pharmacy is a perfectly reasonable way to buy non-prescription products; it is the illegal one that is expensive.
Sources: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 699/2014 — the common logo for online sellers · Directive 2011/62/EU — the falsified medicines directive · European Medicines Agency · checked 2026-09-08
Frequently asked questions
How do I know an online pharmacy is legal?
Click the EU common logo on its page. It must take you to that country's official register of distance sellers, and the entry must name the same business and the same website. If it is not clickable or lands anywhere else, the seller is not verified.
What does the EU common logo look like?
A rectangle with a white cross on a green-to-grey background and the flag of the country the seller is registered in, required on every page offering medicines by Implementing Regulation (EU) No 699/2014. The picture proves nothing on its own; the link behind it does.
Can I have prescription medicines posted to me?
It depends on the country you are ordering into. Distance selling of non-prescription medicines is broadly permitted in the EEA; for prescription medicines the rules differ and some countries do not allow it at all. A seller offering prescription medicines with no prescription is illegal everywhere.
What is actually wrong with a cheap online medicine?
Seized falsified products have contained the wrong active substance, none at all, uncontrolled doses and contaminants. The harm includes the untreated condition as well as whatever is in the tablet. The EU safety-feature system only covers the legal supply chain.
The other rules
Finding one that is open right now
The search order that works, why the map is wrong more often than the register, how to read an opening_hours string, and what to do when nothing is open.
Nights, weekends and public holidays
Who decides that a pharmacy stays open, how a duty roster is published, which holidays close everything, and how to plan a repeat prescription around a long weekend.
What a pharmacist can do without a doctor
The three legal shelves, what a pharmacist is actually trained to catch, the questions they will ask and why, and the point at which the answer is a doctor rather than a product.
You have run out of a medicine
Which situations are urgent rather than inconvenient, how a repeat is renewed in each country, what a pharmacy can do at its own discretion, and how to stop it happening again.
Digital prescriptions at the counter
What a national prescription store is, how you identify yourself, how to collect for someone else, what you can see yourself, and where the system stops at the border.
Using a prescription in another country
The EU rules that make a prescription portable, the elements it must carry, the medicines that need a travel certificate, and what a European Health Insurance Card does and does not pay for.
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The answer to "what do you take?"
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