tions of the evaluation are conducted by other 
health professionals. 
‘‘(C) COVERING PRACTITIONER.—With re-
spect to a patient, a practitioner is a covering 
practitioner for purposes of this section if the 
practitioner conducts a medical evaluation of 
the patient at the request of a practitioner who 
has conducted at least one in-person medical 
evaluation of the patient and is temporarily un-
available to conduct the evaluation of the pa-
tient. A practitioner is a covering practitioner 
without regard to whether the practitioner has 
conducted any in-person medical evaluation of 
the patient involved. 
‘‘(4) RULES OF CONSTRUCTION.—
‘‘(A) 
INDIVIDUALS
REPRESENTED
AS 
PRACTITIONERS.—A person who is not a practi-
tioner (as defined in subsection (d)) lacks legal 
capacity under this section to have a qualifying 
medical relationship with any patient. 
‘‘(B) STANDARD
PRACTICE
OF
PHAR-
MACY.—Paragraph (1) may not be construed as 
prohibiting any conduct that is a standard prac-
tice in the practice of pharmacy.
‘‘(C) 
APPLICABILITY
OF
REQUIRE-
MENTS.—Paragraph (3) may not be construed 
as having any applicability beyond this section, 
and does not affect any State law, or interpre-
tation of State law, concerning the practice of 
medicine. 
‘‘(c) ACTIONS BY STATES.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Whenever an attorney gen-
eral of any State has reason to believe that the in-
terests of the residents of that State have been or 
are being threatened or adversely affected because 
any person has engaged or is engaging in a pattern 
or practice that violates section 301(l), the State 
may bring a civil action on behalf of its residents in 
an appropriate district court of the United States to 
enjoin such practice, to enforce compliance with such 
section (including a nationwide injunction), to obtain 
damages, restitution, or other compensation on be-
half of residents of such State, to obtain reasonable 
attorneys fees and costs if the State prevails in the 
civil action, or to obtain such further and other relief 
as the court may deem appropriate. 
‘‘(2) NOTICE.—The State shall serve prior writ-
ten notice of any civil action under paragraph (1) or 
(5)(B) upon the Secretary and provide the Secretary
with a copy of its complaint, except that if it is not 
feasible for the State to provide such prior notice, 
the State shall serve such notice immediately upon 
instituting such action. Upon receiving a notice re-
specting a civil action, the Secretary shall have the 
right—
‘‘(A) to intervene in such action; 
‘‘(B) upon so intervening, to be heard on 
all matters arising therein; and 
‘‘(C) to file petitions for appeal. 
‘‘(3) CONSTRUCTION.—For purposes of bring-
ing any civil action under paragraph (1), nothing in 
this chapter shall prevent an attorney general of a 
State from exercising the powers conferred on the 
attorney general by the laws of such State to con-
duct investigations or to administer oaths or affir-
mations or to compel the attendance of witnesses or 
the production of documentary and other evidence. 
‘‘(4) VENUE; SERVICE OF PROCESS.—Any civil 
action brought under paragraph (1) in a district 
court of the United States may be brought in the 
district in which the defendant is found, is an inhab-
itant, or transacts business or wherever venue is 
proper under section 1391 of title 28, United States 
Code. Process in such an action may be served in
any district in which the defendant is an inhabitant 
or in which the defendant may be found. 
‘‘(5) ACTIONS BY OTHER STATE OFFICIALS.—
‘‘(A) Nothing contained in this section 
shall prohibit an authorized State official from 
proceeding in State court on the basis of an al-
leged violation of any civil or criminal statute of 
such State. 
‘‘(B) In addition to actions brought by an 
attorney general of a State under paragraph 
(1), such an action may be brought by officers 
of such State who are authorized by the State 
to bring actions in such State on behalf of its 
residents. 
‘‘(d) GENERAL DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this 
section: 
‘‘(1) The term ‘practitioner’ means a practi-
tioner referred to in section 503(b)(1) with respect 
to issuing a written or oral prescription. 
‘‘(2) The term ‘prescription drug’ means a drug 
that is subject to section 503(b)(1). 
‘‘(3) The term ‘qualifying medical relationship’, 
with respect to a practitioner and a patient, has the 
meaning indicated for such term in subsection (b). 
‘‘(e) INTERNET-RELATED DEFINITIONS.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this sec-
tion: 
‘‘(A) The term ‘Internet’ means collectively 
the myriad of computer and telecommunications 
facilities, including equipment and operating 
software, which comprise the interconnected 
world-wide network of networks that employ the 
transmission control protocol/internet protocol, 
or any predecessor or successor protocols to 
such protocol, to communicate information of 
all kinds by wire or radio. 
‘‘(B) The term ‘link’, with respect to the 
Internet, means one or more letters, words, 
numbers, symbols, or graphic items that appear 
on a page of an Internet site for the purpose 
of serving, when activated, as a method for exe-
cuting an electronic command—
‘‘(i) to move from viewing one portion 
of a page on such site to another portion 
of the page; 
‘‘(ii) to move from viewing one page 
on such site to another page on such site; 
or
‘‘(iii) to move from viewing a page on 
one Internet site to a page on another 
Internet site. 
‘‘(C) The term ‘page’, with respect to the 
Internet, means a document or other file 
accessed at an Internet site. 
‘‘(D)(i) The terms ‘site’ and ‘address’, with 
respect to the Internet, mean a specific location 
on the Internet that is determined by Internet 
Protocol numbers. Such term includes the do-
main name, if any. 
‘‘(ii) The term ‘domain name’ means a 
method of representing an Internet address 
without direct reference to the Internet Protocol 
numbers for the address, including methods 
that use designations such as ‘.com’, ‘.edu’, 
‘.gov’, ‘.net’, or ‘.org’. 
‘‘(iii) The term ‘Internet Protocol num-
bers’ includes any successor protocol for deter-
mining a specific location on the Internet. 
‘‘(2) AUTHORITY
OF
SECRETARY.—The Sec-
retary may by regulation modify any definition 
under paragraph (1) to take into account changes in 
technology.
‘‘(f) INTERACTIVE
COMPUTER
SERVICE; ADVER-
TISING.—No provider of an interactive computer service, 
as defined in section 230(f)(2) of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)(2)), or of advertising services 
shall be liable under this section for dispensing or selling 
prescription drugs in violation of this section on account 
of another person’s selling or dispensing such drugs, pro-
vided that the provider of the interactive computer service 
or of advertising services does not own or exercise cor-
porate control over such person.’’. 
(b) INCLUSION AS PROHIBITED ACT.—Section 301 of 
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 
331) is amended by inserting after paragraph (k) the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(l) The dispensing or selling of a prescription drug 
in violation of section 503B.’’. 
(c) INTERNET SALES
OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS; 
CONSIDERATION BY SECRETARY OF PRACTICES AND PRO-
CEDURES
FOR CERTIFICATION
OF LEGITIMATE BUSI-
NESSES.—In carrying out section 503B of the Federal 
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (as added by subsection 
(a) of this section), the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services shall take into consideration the practices and 
procedures of public or private entities that certify that 
businesses selling prescription drugs through Internet