Pharmacies verdict against magnetic jewelry sale

The court prohibits pharmacies from selling magnetic jewelry

09/21/2013

Magnetic jewelry missing a tangible health benefits and may therefore not be offered and sold in pharmacies. This decided on Thursday the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig.

Seven-year legal dispute
Magnetic jewelry belong „not to the usual pharmacy goods“ and therefore may not be offered and sold in pharmacies, judged on Thursday the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig (Az .: 3 C 15.12). Thus, the judges rejected the claim of a pharmacist from Hamm against a ban on sales by the city of Hamm. The ruling ended a lawsuit that had stretched between the pharmacist and the city council for nearly seven years and three judicial instances. The jewels provided with magnets lacked a tangible health benefit and therefore they belonged „not to the permissible assortment of goods of a pharmacy.“ The court found that the jewelery was neither a medicine nor a medical device and thus did not fulfill the requirement of a pharmacy standard product.

Positive effect incomprehensible
According to pharmacy operating rules are „Items that directly serve or promote human health“ pharmacy usual. So the product has to be „objectively capable of positively influencing human health.“ According to the Federal Administrative Court, this does not apply to magnetic jewelery. According to findings of the lower courts let themselves „failing to understand the alleged positive impact on human health.“ There is no viable explanation for the effectiveness of magnetic jewelery and no reliable insights beyond the placebo effect.

Health promoting effect said
Magnetic jewelry is said to have a health-promoting and sometimes even life-prolonging effect. The majority of providers dispensed with such advertising and points out that they can not make statements about the healing properties of magnets or precious metals, since there is no scientific evidence. Some naturopaths, however, advertise the sale of magnetic jewelry with the well that pain as well as inflammation disappear and rheumatic complaints should be alleviated, for example, if you regularly wear a bracelet, in which a magnet is incorporated.

Confidence of the customers
The ban on sales will not violate professional freedom, because the restriction of the product range to pharmaceuticals, medical devices and others „typical pharmacy goods“ be „justified by reasonable grounds of public interest and proportionate“, so the federal administrative court. This protects customer confidence, „to get in the pharmacy products with an actual health benefits.“ With the help of such measures, finally, a development should be prevented that pharmacies to so-called „drugstores“ develop. (Ad)

Image: B. Proud