On Leboncoin, offers of professional medical equipment are multiplying on the platform. If the sale of these devices is authorized by law, there are gray areas.
Anesthesia machines, medical respirators, and even operating tables. On Leboncoin, strange offers of professional medical equipment abound on the sales platform.
On the program, a second-hand surgical microscope at 3,750 euros, a second-hand electrocardiograph at 720 euros or an infusion pump at 115 euros. Some sellers offer around thirty pieces of equipment, sold on average between 100 and 3,000 euros.
While the ads may be surprising, they do find buyers. Indeed, sellers’ profiles are often rated “5 stars”, with more than fifty positive reviews. Some ads are also indicated as “sold” on the platform.
Sale authorized under conditions
The sale of medical equipment is indeed authorized. As Me Antoine Chéron, a lawyer specializing in intellectual and digital property, points out, the public health code authorizes a specific list of medical equipment that can be sold second-hand, but under certain conditions.
“These are sensitive devices. Their performance must be recorded in a register which is controlled by the public health code,” the lawyer insists to Tech&Co.
Legifrance also specifies that the equipment must “benefit from regular maintenance” and that “the information necessary to identify the medical device”, such as the date of first commissioning or the date of first acquisition, must be mentioned.
The sale of these devices is also planned by the Leboncoin site, as the company recalls, contacted by Tech&Co. You just have to take a look at the conditions of use of the platform to find the “medical equipment” section in the types of authorized advertisements.
Legal uncertainty
However, Me Antoine Chéron denounces “vague” legislation and a gray area. Indeed, the sale of reconditioned medical equipment can be dangerous, because there is no follow-up of sellers, and especially, buyers. It is difficult for a buyer to know who is hiding behind an advertisement. A seller contacted by Tech&Co who wished to remain anonymous, presented himself as a professional who buys equipment from different clinics and reconditions it.
“Above all, there is a lack of clarity as to who will be the purchaser,” adds the specialist in intellectual and digital property. However, we do not know how these machines will be used.
“There are fake doctors,” recalls Me Antoine Chéron. “There is a risk of slipping towards a medical practice that is not authorized.”
The lawyer thus pleads for a “serious identification responsibility”. For its part, Leboncoin specifies in its conditions of use that it is forbidden to post “offers that could lead to biased practices”, without further details.
Contacted by Tech&Co, the Ministry of Health has not yet responded to our requests.
