The publisher of medical software Doctolib has been fined 4.6 million euros by the French Competition Authority for abuse of a dominant position in online appointment booking and teleconsultation, it announced on Thursday, November 6.
The fine sanctions, in particular the exclusivity clauses it imposed on healthcare providers who wanted to subscribe to its online appointment platform or its teleconsultation service, and for the acquisition of competitor MonDocteur in 2018, “with the aim of blocking the national market for appointment booking services”. In a press release, Doctolib announced that it would appeal.
“Numerous internal Doctolib documents confirm this desire to impose exclusivity on health professionals, with the managers showing the desire to “be a mandatory and strategic interface between the doctor and his patient to lock them both in”the Competition Authority explains in its press release.
“Desire to impose exclusivity on healthcare workers”
“From the launch of Doctolib Téléconsultation in 2019, the contracts provided for a mandatory prior registration” to the online appointment booking service. “The healthcare professional was therefore obliged to pay for both services cumulatively”according to the Competition Authority.
This decision is the result of a complaint submitted in 2019 “represents a misinterpretation of our activity and our sector. Doctolib is in no way in a dominant position”the company responded in its press release. “Despite our strong use by the general public, Doctolib is a recent player in the healthcare software sector (3 times smaller than our European competitors) and today only serves 30% of French healthcare providers (10% in 2019 at the time of the complaint)”she added.
Doctolib, which has about 3,000 employees, is one of the stars of French technology, a “unicorn”, a start-up whose valuation exceeds a billion dollars. The annual turnover amounted to 348 million euros in 2024.
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