19 October 2016 - Europe's highest court has ruled Germany's floor on retail prescription drug prices violates free trade in the single market, potentially opening the door to competition from foreign mail-order outlets.

Patients covered by Germany's statutory medical insurers pay a certain proportion of drug expenses from their own pockets, and Dutch-based mail-order pharmacies have in the past offered to return some of that money, using their non-German domicile to get around minimum prices.

Such offers were mainly used by chronically ill patients - and fiercely attacked by Germany's powerful pharmacy lobby - until the practice was blocked by Germany's highest court in 2014 after years of legal wrangling.

Germany's strict rules on prices as well as wholesale and retail margins for prescription drugs aim to ensure that brick-and-mortar pharmacies stay in business in rural areas, keeping essential drugs available across the country.

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