Methodology and impartiality criteria

Observatory independence

The observatory does not promote individual operators nor alter results based on commercial relationships. Surveys are based on publicly accessible data from monitored sites, collected with automated methods and processed with uniform statistical rules for all market participants.

Coverage: top market players by country

We monitor the leading online pharmaceutical distribution operators for each covered country. The list of sites and the number of SKUs (distinct products) detected in the last 7 days is published in the table below and updated automatically at each survey cycle. The set of monitored online pharmacies and e-commerce sites may change over time, including based on each operator's availability to provide data or to allow accurate analysis of their price and availability information.

Public price consultation

Anyone can consult the prices detected by the observatory at any time via the homepage search: each product page shows offers detected on monitored sites, with effective price (product + estimated standard shipping) and last update date. On result pages, each operator is classified relative to the reference market as below average, average or above average, according to the rules described below.

Search a product on the observatory

What the detected price includes — and excludes

Comparisons are based on the shelf price published on the site, free-shipping thresholds and standard shipping costs configured for each operator. Temporary discounts, promotional codes or time-limited promotions that may apply at checkout are not taken into account. Likewise, benefits from loyalty programmes, points cards, subscriptions or other conditions reserved for registered customers or specific user categories are not considered. The price shown is therefore a homogeneous, comparable reference across sites — not the final price any individual consumer might obtain at checkout.

Definition of "Great price" and positioning bands

For each product, effective prices detected on monitored sites (including estimated standard shipping) are sorted and split into three equally dense bands (terciles, ⅓ each): • Great price (≤ 33rd percentile, q₁/₃): the lowest third of detected prices. • Average (> q₁/₃ and ≤ 66th percentile, q₂/₃): the middle third of prices. • Above average (> q₂/₃): the highest third of detected prices. With at least three detected prices, q₁/₃ and q₂/₃ thresholds are computed by linear interpolation on sorted prices. On markets with fewer than three offers, bands are not shown.

• Bands divide reference market prices into three equally dense groups (⅓ + ⅓ + ⅓).
• The shelf price is combined with estimated standard shipping based on each site's free-shipping thresholds.
• Temporary discounts, promo codes and loyalty-programme benefits are not included in the comparison.
• The same rules apply to all monitored sites, with no commercial exceptions.

"Great price" badge on partner sites

The badge appears exclusively on affiliated partner sites to highlight products whose price falls in the lower band relative to the market average (lowest third, as described above). The absence of the badge does not necessarily indicate an incorrect or off-market price: it may simply mean the product does not meet the maximum-convenience criteria, that the site chose not to display the badge on that page, or that a temporary and unforeseeable technical issue occurred. The badge is informational in nature and does not replace the consumer's own assessment of the offer as a whole.

Remuneration model

The service is paid by online pharmacies and affiliated operators based on verifications performed (surveys, badges, reports), according to published plans. There are no incentives tied to the customer's commercial performance: no sales commissions, no variable compensation based on ranking position or number of badges issued. Remuneration covers the costs of collecting, processing and publishing market data.