BROCK MÜLLER ZIEGENBEIN represents pharmacists before the Berlin Administrative Court in an action against the Federal Republic of Germany for an increase in the fixed pharmacy fee

In order to avoid ruinous price competition between pharmacies and to ensure a nationwide and consistent supply of medicines to the population, the principle of a uniform pharmacy dispensing price (Section 78 para. 2 sentence 2 AMG) is of central importance. Part of the pharmacy dispensing price is the so-called fixed fee, which primarily serves to remunerate the pharmacist's advisory services and represents an essential component of the financing of pharmacies.

According to the intention of the legislator, the fixed fee should be continuously adjusted to the cost development of pharmacies under economically efficient management. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWi) is responsible for reviewing and adjusting the fixed fee. In fact, the fixed fee was set in 2004 and has only been increased once since then - namely in 2013 - and only slightly. In the opinion of Dr Fiete Kalscheuer, partner in public law at BROCK MÜLLER ZIEGENBEIN and specialist lawyer for administrative law, this constitutes a violation of pharmacists' subjective rights and he has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Republic of Germany before the Berlin Administrative Court on behalf of those affected.

In an interview, Dr Fiete Kalscheuer comments on the background to the lawsuit and the prospects of success.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)