The Higher Regional Court of Munich (OLG) has just decided in the second instance that a health insurance company may not advertise with medical remote treatment, as the Regional Court of Munich I was of the same opinion last year. However, the health insurance company appealed against the first ruling and went to the second instance, which has now confirmed the ruling once again after the Central Office for Combating Unfair Competition had sued the health insurance company. In the saying „Just stay in bed when you go to the doctor‘ and then „the time when you had to drag yourself to the doctor with a sniff is over. From now on, you can get diagnoses and sick notes directly on your smartphone, at no additional cost“, the head office had seen a violation of paragraph 9 of the Heilmittelwerbegesetz (HWG), which „classifies advertising for the detection or treatment of diseases, ailments, physical damage or pathological complaints that are not based on one’s own perception of the person or animal to be treated as inadmissible. The Higher Regional Court took the same view, although the health insurance fund had based itself on a new version of the paragraph, which since December 2019 contains a second paragraph. The Higher Regional Court underlined the view of the competition authority and ruled in its favour.
