LegitScript is a Portland, Oregon-based internet and payments compliance company that provides services for merchant monitoring, platform monitoring, and certification in high-risk industries. The company also performs investigative analyses for government agencies around the world regarding

cybercrime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or Computer network, networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cyberc ...

, and offers brand monitoring for

intellectual property infringement An intellectual property (IP) infringement is the infringement or violation of an intellectual property right. There are several types of intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, patents, trademarks, industrial designs, plant breeders ri ...

. Some of LegitScript's partners include

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Bing Bing most often refers to: * Bing Crosby (1903–1977), American singer * Microsoft Bing, a web search engine Bing may also refer to: Food and drink * Bing (bread), a Chinese flatbread * Bing (soft drink), a UK brand * Bing cherry, a varie ...

, and

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

. LegitScript also works with the

U.S. Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

to monitor and investigate websites marketing FDA-regulated products. LegitScript has been designated as a Top Workplace in Oregon multiple times in recent years and in 2019 was named to the Inc. 5000 list of most successful companies.

Founding

LegitScript's founder and former CEO is John Horton, who was a

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

aide on drug policy issues from 2002 to 2007. Scott Roth is the company's current CEO. The company is a founding member of the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies. The NABP has written that it endorses LegitScript on behalf of the government agencies that license and regulate pharmacies and pharmacists in the United States, Canada, and other jurisdictions for use "by

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

advertising programs,

Domain Name Registrars A domain is a geographic area controlled by a single person or organization. Domain may also refer to: Law and human geography * Demesne, in English common law and other Medieval European contexts, lands directly managed by their holder rather ...

, registries, payment processing companies,

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

companies, and other Internet platforms to ensure that Internet platforms operate in compliance with applicable healthcare laws and regulations, and are not utilized in furtherance of the illicit sale of unregulated healthcare products". In addition, some EU government agencies have referred to LegitScript as the "appropriate authority" to which rogue Internet pharmacies should be reported. Although LegitScript began its monitoring primarily in the online pharmacy and dietary supplement spaces, the company has since expanded into other high-risk areas, including transaction laundering, gambling, illicit adult content, scams and fraud, cannabidiol (CBD), content that advocates for hate or violence, and more.

Domain name registrars

In November 2008, LegitScript launched its registrar notification program and reported that it had shut down 500 "rogue" Internet pharmacies by notifying their

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

s and

domain name registrar A domain name registrar is a company, person, or office that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) Domain name registry, registry or a country code top-l ...

s. In May 2010, the company released a report regarding over 7,000 websites displaying a forged pharmacy license, indicating that it worked with 11 different domain name registrars to shut down the websites. In late 2012, the company stated that it had worked with registrars to shut down over 35,000 rogue Internet pharmacy websites in the previous four years. As of early 2013, several domain name registrars explicitly state in their terms of services that they suspend and lock domain names identified as rogue Internet pharmacies by LegitScript, and outsource their abuse point-of-contact on Internet pharmacy issues to LegitScript. The company has stated that it works with most domain name registrars, and, in late 2012, it began publishing data showing that the websites of rogue Internet pharmacies "cluster" around a small number of registrars that LegitScript says ignore abuse notifications. Several Internet pharmacy affiliate marketers have publicly discussed the importance of registering Internet pharmacy domain names with registrars that do not work with LegitScript. In submitting abuse notifications to ICANN-accredited registrars, LegitScript has authority to act on the behalf of government regulators in some countries, such as Japan.

Consumer protection

In March 2010,

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

website

SiteJabber Sitejabber is an AI-enabled platform that allows businesses and buyers to interact through online reviews. Sitejabber was founded in 2007 in San Francisco, California and has been described as "the Yelp for websites and online businesses". Sitejab ...

announced that it would begin integrating LegitScript's legitimacy determinations into its Internet pharmacy ratings. In May 2010, the

WOT Services WOT Services is the developer of MyWOT (also known as WOT and Web of Trust), an online reputation and Internet safety service which shows indicators of trust about existing websites. The confidence level is based both on user ratings and on thir ...

announced a similar initiative in which LegitScript Internet pharmacy legitimacy determinations would be integrated into its reputation rankings.

Dietary supplements and designer drugs

LegitScript maintains a Healthcare Product Legitimacy program that monitors whether "

dietary supplements A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement a person's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources, or that are synthetic ...

have been the subject of regulatory action, are considered unsafe, or are marketed as miracle cures" and that is also endorsed by the

National Association of Boards of Pharmacy National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that assists member boards of pharmacy for the purpose of protecting public health. It has 54 active members and 12 associate members. Active member boards inc ...

. In its advertising policies for healthcare and medicines,

indicates that it uses LegitScript's healthcare product legitimacy program to determine which supplements and

designer drugs A designer drug is a structural or functional analog of a controlled substance that has been designed to mimic the pharmacological effects of the original drug, while avoiding classification as illegal and/or detection in standard drug tests. ...

should be restricted from advertising.

Anti-trust lawsuit

Legitscript is the subject of an antitrust action by pharmacychecker.com, a website which provides and compares prices of drugs from licensed international pharmacies, and verifies the credentials of these pharmacies. Pharmacychecker.com alleges that Legitscript is engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the information it provides. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon ruled on January 3 2023 denying a motion by LegitScript for a summary judgment for a stay of discovery in the lawsuit, as well as affirming Pharmacychecker.com as a legitimate enterprise.

International Internet pharmacy certification

As of February 2013, LegitScript's website indicated that it had approved over 250 online pharmacy websites and documented over 48,000 "rogue" online pharmacy websites. The program is also endorsed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legitscript Pharmaceuticals policy