The Karlsruhe Regional Court will deliver a ruling on Dec. 9 in the legal dispute over dm-med, the online pharmacy operated by German drugstore chain dm, according to the DPA news agency. Presiding judge Steffen Wesche made clear during Wednesday's hearing that the case concerns the fundamental permissibility of the entire business model.
The central question is whether dm-med's online presence is sufficiently separated from dm's core drugstore operations. The competition center (Wettbewerbszentrale), which filed the lawsuit, seeks a complete prohibition on dm-med offering and selling pharmacy-required medicines to end consumers. It argues that the separation between dm and dm-med is inadequate, pointing out that customers are directed from the dm homepage straight to dm-med.
dm's lawyers counter that the two offerings are distinct, noting that multiple clicks are required to reach dm-med and that separate shopping carts and invoices are used. Judge Wesche framed the issue as whether dm-med effectively operates as "a corner in the drugstore" or as an independent pharmacy cooperating with the retail chain.
For DocMorris, the additional competition from dm-med currently affects only part of its business. dm-med does not sell prescription-only medications, while DocMorris relies heavily on the prescription-drug segment, particularly through Germany's electronic prescription system, as a growth driver. dm entered the German mail-order market for non-prescription but pharmacy-required medications in December 2025 and has been viewed as a potentially serious competitor.
If the competition center prevails, competitive pressure on established German online pharmacies DocMorris and Redcare Pharmacy would ease. However, a final resolution is unlikely before December at the earliest; the case could proceed through multiple appellate instances up to the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof).
