Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main: The designation of a medical practice with two doctors as a "center" for aesthetic and plastic surgery is not misleading

Co-author: My Anh Cao

In a judgment dated 11 May 2023 (case reference: 6 U 4/23), the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main dealt with the designation of a joint practice consisting of two doctors as a "center for aesthetic and plastic surgery". The Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main had previously ruled in summary proceedings that the term "center" in the medical field was unfair and therefore misleading because it indicated a certain size, which was not the case here.

The applicant is a plastic surgeon in private practice. The two defendants are specialists in plastic and aesthetic surgery who operate a group practice under the name "Center for Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery". The applicant was of the opinion that the name of the practice was misleading.

The defendants' appeal before the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court was successful. The Higher Regional Court ruled that the Regional Court had wrongly classified the designation "center" for a joint practice with two doctors as misleading. As so often, it depends on how the target public understands the advertising in question. It is true that the public generally expects the term "center" to indicate a personnel and factual structure of a company that goes beyond comparable average companies. However, in the medical field, the term "center" is not to be understood in connection with a particular size. This is because, according to Sec. 95 para. 1 sentence 1 SGB V, no statutory minimum size is required for the establishment of a "medical care center" (MVZ). The previously mandatory requirement for interdisciplinary cooperation has been dropped since 2015. As a result, practices with just two doctors can now operate on the market under the name of a "medical care center". Due to the frequent appearance of medical (care) centers on the market, the public has also become accustomed to the term and does not assume that the size of the practice is above average. Therefore, even in the present case, the abbreviated form "center" is not misleading and is not associated with any particular size.