Doctolib fined €4.6 million for abuse of dominant position 

The medical software publisher Doctolib has been fined 4.6 million euros by the French Competition Authority for abuse of dominant position in online appointment booking and teleconsultation, it announced on Thursday.

The fine specifically penalizes the exclusivity clauses it imposed on healthcare professionals wishing to subscribe to the online appointment platform or its teleconsultation service, and for the acquisition of its competitor MonDocteur in 2018, "with the aim of locking down the national market for appointment booking services."

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In a statement, Doctolib announced that it would appeal.

This decision, which stems from a complaint filed in 2019, "presents an erroneous interpretation of our business and our sector. Doctolib is in no way in a dominant position," the company stated in its press release.

"Despite our strong public usage, Doctolib is a recent player in the healthcare software sector (3 times smaller than our European competitors) and currently equips only 30% of French healthcare professionals (10% in 2019 at the time of the complaint)," she added.

"Numerous internal Doctolib documents corroborate this desire to impose exclusivity on healthcare professionals, with its leaders displaying a desire to 'be a mandatory and strategic interface between the doctor and his patient in order to lock them both in'," the Competition Authority stated in its press release.

"From the launch of Doctolib Teleconsultation in 2019, the contracts stipulated mandatory prior subscription" to its online appointment booking service. The healthcare professional was therefore obliged to pay for both services cumulatively," the Competition Authority stated.

As for "MonDocteur", it was bought to "lock down the national market for online medical appointment booking services", the Competition Authority indicated.

Doctolib, which has around 3,000 employees, is one of the stars of French tech, a "unicorn", a start-up whose valuation exceeds one billion dollars.

Its annual revenue reached 348 million euros in 2024.