• The President of UOKiK has brought charges of infringing the collective interests of consumers against the Centrum Medyczne Telmed company based in Lublin.
• Users of the websites: e-lekarz24h.pl and e-zwolnienie24h.pl may be misled regarding the possibility of obtaining a prescription for certain medications, the authenticity of opinions about services and the right to withdraw from the contract.
• The entrepreneur faces a fine of up to 10 percent of its turnover.

Centrum Medyczne Telmed in Lublin provides online medical consultations via the websites: e-lekarz24h.pl and e-zwolnienia24h.pl. On these websites, consumers may order an electronic prescription or sick leave. The Office received complaints which became the basis for the President of UOKiK to take action. The company was accused of infringing collective consumer interests.

“Do you need a prescription for testosterone? Using our website, you will get it in just a few minutes.” This is how Centrum Medyczne Telmed promotes its services, even though it also excludes this drug in the terms of use of the e-lekarz24h.pl website as one of the prohibited drugs, along with psychoactive, hypnotic and narcotic drugs. All these drugs are used for serious diseases and therapy, the recommendation of which requires diagnosis and direct contact with a physician. Moreover, by using phrases containing the names of these drugs, the company positions its website in search engines, thus giving the impression that it offers them, which may constitute an unfair market practice. Based on the search results and advertising slogans, consumers could decide to contact the company and place an order.

Centrum Medyczne Telmed also promotes its activities by presenting only positive comments on the main pages of its websites. However, the company does not state whether and how it checks their authenticity and whether they actually come from people who bought and used the service. The reviews published on the Internet influence consumer choices. Therefore, from the 1st of January this year, all entrepreneurs who provides access to reviews of products and services must state whether they verify them. If so, they should provide information on the method of such verification and whether they post all opinions - including the negative ones. This results from the assumptions of the Omnibus directive which aims, among others, to eliminate the risk of lack of authenticity of opinions and explicitly prohibits posting their false or distorted versions.

– Consumers should be treated fairly in relations with entrepreneurs, and this assumes that they obtain reliable information about the presented offer. They cannot be lured with false slogans or, as in the case of Centrum Medyczne Telmed, with false promises of easy access to medications requiring direct contact with a doctor. Equally reprehensible is not informing whether positive opinions about the company, presented as an incentive to use its services, are verified – says the President of the UOKiK, Tomasz Chróstny.

Another charge brought by the President of the UOKiK against Centrum Medyczne Telmed is that the entrepreneur uses unclear and imprecise terms regarding the possibility, method and deadline of withdrawal from the contract and the circumstances in which the consumer loses such right. The consumers learn that they cannot withdraw from the contract "after the service has been provided", but there is no place where it would be specified which stage of contact the company has in mind. The consumer complaints show that if the consumers had not yet received any diagnosis or information from the company and wanted to withdraw from the contract, this was not possible. Moreover, the company does not provide a withdrawal form and limits the method of exercising this right only to e-mail.

If these charges are substantiated, the company may be fined up to 10% of its turnover.

The President of the UOKiK is looking into the activities of various entities offering e-prescriptions in terms of infringement of the collective interests of consumers. Preliminary proceedings are currently underway to determine whether the business activity conducted via the websites of CentrumMarihuany.pl, Pewna-Recepta.pl, Dobra-recepta.pl, Doktor-recepta.pl super-recepta.pl and Nasza-recepta.pl infringes the collective consumer interests or whether the standard forms of contracts concluded by the operators of the above-mentioned websites may contain prohibited clauses.