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By Sally Watson, 23 February 2000 00:30

NEWS Industry figures are calling for the European online healthcare market to face investigation and regulation like its US counterpart. The US Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into the use of personal data on US health sites earlier this week, to establish whether companies are improperly sharing customer details with third parties. Now leading European sites Nutravida.com and Vitago say they would welcome an inquiry to establish best practice and weed-out cowboy companies. Trevor Millett, CEO of Nutravida.com, said: "It's quite apparent that dubious characters have entered the Internet market and are casting a cloud over the reputable businesses. It's something that needs to be addressed quickly." At the moment, UK-based health sites have no specific online code of practice, and can only sign up to general schemes like the Consumer Association's Web Trader. Bernard Fraser, UK MD of Vitago, said he would welcome the stamp of approval a tailored scheme would provide. "We want to be seen to be applying the rules," he said. In the absence of anything specific for the online market, Nutravida.com has signed up to the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA) code of practice. But according to Trevor Millett, that's not good enough. "There are strong trade bodies in existence who want to have a well regulated and well run industry. I think the majority of sites are keen to support them in every way possible," he said. "It's inevitable that the government will have to be involved somewhere - certainly for funding. But I hope the majority of regulation can be done by industry," Millett added. Penny Viner, director at the HFMA, also welcomed the idea of third-party accreditation for healthcare sites, but said the HMFA is reluctant to provide it because of the difficulties of enforcement. "There are too many flagrant abuses," she said. "The industry nearly always pleases itself." The HFMA has informally contacted TrustUK, the recently launched industry regulator for the Internet, to talk about the possibility of combining its code of practice with TrustUK's online expertise.