Before I moved into payments, I spent five years in the pharmaceutical industry, including time behind a pharmacy counter. So it still surprises me how often a registered online pharmacy is described as high risk, in the same breath as businesses that have nothing like the same level of oversight. This is my case for changing that, and I would genuinely like to hear the other side.
The case for calling pharmacy high risk
It is worth being fair to the label first. Online pharmacy is a sector where unregulated sellers have caused real harm. Medicines bought from unlicensed websites can be fake or dangerous. Card schemes watch the sector closely for that reason, and Mastercard’s rules say prescription medicines must be sold under one of two specific codes, 5912 for pharmacies and 5122 for pharmaceutical wholesale. Repeat prescriptions also bring recurring payments, and recurring payments bring disputes when they are not handled well.
The case against calling pharmacy high risk
A UK online pharmacy is registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council. It has a responsible pharmacist. It displays the distance selling logo where it applies. Prescription only medicines need a prescriber. Every one of those is a control that most retailers will never have. A registered pharmacy is not a risky business that happens to be regulated. It is a regulated business that happens to sell online.
The high risk label also punishes pharmacies for the behaviour of sellers they have nothing in common with. The unlicensed website selling medicines from overseas is not a pharmacy. It is the thing pharmacy regulation exists to stop.
Running a registered online pharmacy and want an account set up for pharmacy from day one?
Where the risk in online pharmacy payments sits
In my experience, the disputes a pharmacy sees rarely come from the medicine. They come from late deliveries, a billing name the patient does not recognise, and repeat orders the patient forgot they set up. All three are operational, and all three are fixable. Track every delivery. Use a billing name patients recognise. Send a reminder before every repeat charge.
My view
Registration should open doors, not close them. A pharmacy that is properly registered and runs its repeat billing like a well run subscription is one of the steadiest merchants in payments. The label should describe the business, not the category.
Our guide to pharmacy merchant category codes explains how pharmacy payments are coded, and the guide to frozen pharmacy accounts covers what happens when the setup is wrong.
Disagree? Tell me on LinkedIn. I would rather have the debate than repeat the label.