Deutscher Apothekerverband v 0800 DocMorris NV (2003) C-322/01 is an EU law case, concerning the free movement of goods in the European Union.
The German Pharmacy Association brought an actions against DocMorris in order to prevent it from selling medicinal products to customers based in Germany.
By contrast, the Court has accepted the relevance of the argument that a prohibition on television advertising deprived a trader of the only effective form of promotion which would have enabled it to penetrate a national market (see De Agostini and TV-Shop, paragraph 43).
However, the emergence of the internet as a method of cross-border sales means that the scope and, by the same token, the effect of the prohibition must be looked at on a broader scale than that suggested by the Apothekerverband, by the German, French and Austrian Governments and by the Commission (see paragraphs 56 to 59 of this judgment).
The answer to Question 1(a) is therefore that a national prohibition on the sale by mail order of medicinal products the sale of which is restricted to pharmacies in the Member State concerned, such as the prohibition laid down in Paragraph 43(1) of the AMG, is a measure having an effect equivalent to a quantitative restriction for the purposes of Article 28 EC.