Law library  /  HWG
German health law in English
Healthcare Advertising Act

HWG in English: the German Healthcare Advertising Act

Heilmittelwerbegesetz (HWG) – Gesetz über die Werbung auf dem Gebiete des Heilwesens

21 provisions, complete · English side by side with the current German text · German text as of 29 October 2026 · translation edited by Alexander Baranov

The Heilmittelwerbegesetz governs advertising for medicinal products, medical devices and other therapeutic products and treatments in Germany — what may be said to healthcare professionals and to the public, mandatory information, gifts and promotional items, and the penalties for breaches. Its sections have no official headings; the headings shown are ours.

Each page shows the English and the German side by side, sentence by sentence, with a link to every provision. The German text is copied from the official consolidated version; our English is an unofficial working translation.

In practice: Pharma market access in Germany · Pharma distribution in Germany.

Healthcare Advertising Act

  1. § 1Scope
  2. § 2Healthcare professionals (Fachkreise)
  3. § 3Misleading advertising
  4. § 3aAdvertising for unauthorised medicinal products
  5. § 4Mandatory information in advertising for medicinal products
  6. § 4aProhibited advertising in the package leaflet and for reimbursability
  7. § 5Homeopathic medicinal products
  8. § 6Expert opinions, references to publications and quotations
  9. § 7Gifts and promotional items
  10. § 8Teleshopping and individual import
  11. § 9Remote treatment
  12. § 10Advertising for prescription-only and certain other medicinal products
  13. § 11Prohibited forms of advertising to the general public
  14. § 12Advertising relating to specified diseases (Annex)
  15. § 13Advertising by companies established outside Germany
  16. § 14Criminal offences
  17. § 15Administrative offences
  18. § 16Confiscation
  19. § 17Relationship to the Act against Unfair Competition
  20. § 18Repealed
  21. AnnexDiseases and suffering to which advertising under section 12 shall not relateKrankheiten und Leiden, auf die sich die Werbung gemäß § 12 nicht beziehen darf

Unofficial translation for information only. Only the German text is legally binding. German text: consolidated version from gesetze-im-internet.de, retrieved 29 October 2026. Where German statutes use “soll”, “shall” denotes an obligation that admits exceptions in atypical cases. Not legal advice.