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Medicines on E-bay

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
Is it legal for members of the general public to sell Over-The-Counter medicines on E-Bay?

Surely they are only to be sold by pharmacists? And yet E-Bay has a whole section for OTC medicines...

:chin:

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    dont know, probably not because you can buy plenty of even prescription-only drugs off the internet, especially off people making them illegally, usually abroad.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It will probably be against the Medicine Act, though that is a little broad and may not include some things like paracetamol. But anything you have to buy over the counter certainly shouldnt be sold like that no.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Like a lot in ebay there is very little that's clearly defined - ebay does define some items as prohibited or restricted - though the details on exactly what's defined in each term is pretty unclear.

    http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/policies.html#prohibit

    So clearly everything that is illegal to sell in the UK, should also be illegal in ebay in the UK. Remember, however, that the terms to describe items for sale are universal throughout the world, which may have different laws on what is for sale.

    On another note, the actual content of the OTC section is mainly some spam medication and things that aren't over the counter at all - just things you'd be able to buy from any supermaket.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Jim V wrote:
    Like a lot in ebay there is very little that's clearly defined - ebay does define some items as prohibited or restricted - though the details on exactly what's defined in each term is pretty unclear.

    http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/policies.html#prohibit

    So clearly everything that is illegal to sell in the UK, should also be illegal in ebay in the UK. Remember, however, that the terms to describe items for sale are universal throughout the world, which may have different laws on what is for sale.

    On another note, the actual content of the OTC section is mainly some spam medication and things that aren't over the counter at all - just things you'd be able to buy from any supermaket.
    Drugs that can be sold in any old shop, such as paracetamol, are on a general sales list and could probably be legally traded via ebay.

    More info here.

    It would be illegal to buy and sell prescription only medications through ebay.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Kentish wrote:
    It would be illegal to buy and sell prescription only medications through ebay.

    Surely anything over the counter would be illegal too, codiene for example.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    bongbudda wrote:
    Surely anything over the counter would be illegal too, codiene for example.
    :yes: I'm sure you are right. If it is illegal for my local supermarket to sell me codiene (unless they have a in store pharmacy- which they don't) then it must be illegal for randomers on E-bay to sell them.

    I know most of the stuff in that section is just pills for penis growth etc and aren't actually OTC medicines anyway but I was just surprised that E-Bay had organised a section for the sale of OTC medicines.
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