Foundations

Parapharmacy vs. pharmacy

A pharmacy and a parapharmacy share much of their shelf space but differ in what they may dispense and who must staff them. The difference is set by the national rules implementing the pharmacist's monopoly on medicinal products — rules that vary across the European Union.

What is a pharmacy

A pharmacy (pharmacie, farmacia, farmácia, Apotheke) is a retail establishment authorised by a national health authority to dispense medicinal products to the public. It must be owned or directed by a licensed pharmacist, and prescription medicines may only be supplied through it. In most European jurisdictions, pharmacies are also the only outlet permitted to compound preparations to a prescription, to dispense certain controlled substances, and to deliver clinical services such as vaccination where authorised by national law.

The pharmacy is regulated as a healthcare facility, not as ordinary retail. Premises, opening hours, geographical density and ownership are subject to national rules that have been the subject of European Union case law on freedom of establishment. The Court of Justice of the European Union has held that Member States may reserve pharmacy ownership to pharmacists in the interest of public health (notably in joined cases C-171/07 and C-172/07, Apothekerkammer des Saarlandes, 2009), and that pharmacy density rules can be compatible with EU law where they pursue a public-health objective.

What is a parapharmacy

A parapharmacy, where this category exists, is a retail establishment that sells products adjacent to pharmacy — dermocosmetics, food supplements, low-risk medical devices, oral hygiene, infant care — without being a pharmacy. Its core legal characteristic is that it is not authorised to dispense prescription medicines, and in most cases is not authorised to dispense any medicinal products at all.

The personnel requirements vary. France allows non-pharmacists to operate parapharmacies. Italy requires a registered pharmacist to be present on the premises of a parafarmacia in order to sell non-prescription medicinal products there. Portugal and Belgium have their own regimes. The dedicated country pages — France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium — set out the rules in each jurisdiction.

The pharmacist's monopoly

The "pharmacist's monopoly" (monopole pharmaceutique, riserva di vendita) is the national legal rule that reserves the supply of medicinal products to pharmacies. Its scope is determined by national law within the framework of Directive 2001/83/EC, which defines what a medicinal product is at EU level. A product captured by that definition cannot be sold outside the channels that the Member State has authorised for medicinal products.

Within the medicinal-product category, Member States may then decide which medicines require a prescription, which non-prescription medicines may be self-selected from a shelf, and whether non-prescription medicines may be sold outside pharmacies. The principal divergence between national parapharmacy regimes lies in this last decision:

• Italy and Portugal have liberalised the sale of certain non-prescription medicines, allowing them to be sold in parapharmacies subject to the presence of a pharmacist.
• France continues to reserve all medicinal products, prescription and non-prescription alike, to pharmacies. French parapharmacies sell only cosmetics, supplements, devices and related products.
• Spain reserves both prescription medicines and non-prescription medicines (especialidades farmacéuticas publicitarias, EFP) to pharmacies. The parafarmacia stocks cosmetics, supplements and devices.
• Belgium reserves medicines to pharmacies.

Comparison table

The table below summarises the principal differences at a general level. National rules diverge in detail and the country pages should be consulted for accuracy.

Advice and counselling

A pharmacist working in a pharmacy has a formal counselling role attached to the dispensation of medicines: checking for interactions, advising on use, identifying when a referral to a physician is appropriate. This is a regulated professional act and is reflected in pharmacy training across the EU, which is harmonised by Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications.

A parapharmacist or the staff of a parapharmacy does not carry this counselling role with respect to medicines, because medicines are not dispensed there. Advice given in a parapharmacy on cosmetics or supplements is commercial advice. Where a country (Italy, Portugal) allows non-prescription medicines in parapharmacies, the pharmacist who must be present takes on the counselling role for those products.

For diagnostic, dosing or treatment questions, the appropriate professional is a pharmacist in a pharmacy or a physician — not the staff of a parapharmacy. This is a structural feature of the legal categories, not a comment on staff competence.

Online sales

Online sale of medicinal products in the EU is governed by Directive 2011/62/EU (the Falsified Medicines Directive) and the national authorisation regimes adopted to implement it. Only outlets that already hold a national authorisation to supply medicines to the public — that is, pharmacies — may be authorised to sell non-prescription medicines online, and they must display the EU common logo. Prescription medicines may be sold online only in Member States that have permitted this and only by authorised pharmacies.

Pure parapharmacy products — cosmetics, food supplements, medical devices — are not medicinal products and may generally be sold online without a medicines-specific authorisation, subject to the product regulations: cosmetic product notification, authorised health claims, CE marking, and so on. Cross-border sales within the EU are subject to the same product rules everywhere, although the question of whether a product is a cosmetic or a medicinal product can occasionally be answered differently in different Member States.

Price and competition effects

Empirical work on the price effects of opening up non-prescription medicine sales to parapharmacies has been carried out in the Italian and Portuguese contexts, where such liberalisation has occurred. As a general matter, broadening the number of retail outlets tends to increase price competition for the categories concerned. Specific magnitudes vary by product and time period; this site does not cite numerical estimates without verifying their source. The dedicated Italy and Portugal pages discuss the regulatory liberalisations that triggered the studies.

Last reviewed: May 2026.